A Tiger's journey
by son-goku5
Summary: Tigress fails to achieve inner peace or to express her Chi ever since they returned from the Panda village. She also begins to see her best friend in a different light. After getting a disturbing prediction from Oogway, Po decides to help her. Final Chapter is up. Please read and review :)
1. Chapter 1

**I watched Kung Fu Panda 3 recently and I was mesmerized by the emotional development of Tigress, going from looking shocked at receiving a hug at the end of the second movie to running full speed into Po's embrace at the end of the third with a smile on her face.**

 **Then I got this idea floating in my mind and like a song with a catchy tune, it refuses to go away. I usually write fanfiction for another show but I had to write this. It will be a multi-chapter story but I don't know how long it will be (also, my time is limited so new chapters can take a while). I have the ending already mapped out and partially written, but how much there will be in the middle depends on the response of you, the readers ^^**

 **Just so you know, I will make references to the movies and the TV show, so for those who haven't seen the latter, it might become a bit confusing at times.**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the franchise. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting in a small apartment ^^**

* * *

 _'Inner peace. Inner peace. Inner peace.'_

Tigress repeated those words like a mantra, trying to achieve what Po had managed in a record setting short time, according to Master Shifu. Normally, she would have attempted to make a flower grow with her Chi but after that had failed, her master had suggested to try to achieve inner piece, as it would help her focus more on her Chi.

She opened an eye and looked to her right, where Po was doing his inner peace routine, those fluid movements he had first demonstrated during the climactic confrontation with Shen and his fleet of cannon-armed ships. She marveled at his self-control, the change from the clumsy panda who tended to fall down the thousand steps to the one moving in a graceful manner belying his appearance.

A drop of water from the peach tree they were under fell on his outstretched paw and she watched in fascination as it rolled over his fur, down his arm, over his shoulder and down his other arm where he let it fall to the ground. She stood up from her kneeling position and copied his movements, looking up to watch for a drop to form.

When she noticed one, she took a step to the right and lifted her arm the same way Po had, and the drop fell onto her hand, where it splashed immediately and soaked that little part of her paw. She let out a low growl at her failure, clenching her fist and trying again, doing the moves once more before catching another drop of water that splashed the same way as the fist.

Po, for his part, watched his best friend try to repeat his own actions. He knew what she was trying to do but he also had an inkling of why she had trouble achieving inner peace. He watched on as she tried it a second time, failing again as he had predicted but he knew he needed to interfere now, otherwise Tigress would turn sulky again and scare poor Lei Lei like she had done a few days ago.

"You're doing it wrong." Po's voice came through her second growl, reminding her that he was next to her.

"Then please tell me, oh _master_ , what am I doing wrong?" Tigress growled, saying the word master like an insult but immediately regretting it. "Sorry."

"Master?" he chuckled, setting the staff he got from Oogway down against the tree. "Tigress, I told you, while I accept that you have to keep up appearances in public, in private I am Po."

"You're still our teacher now."

"Don't remind me." he sighed. "At least Shifu agreed to keep teaching the other Pandas."

After Kai had been defeated and the celebration in the Valley of Peace was over, most Pandas had returned to the secret village. Two families had stayed, along with Po's father, wanting to learn Kung Fu which they could then pass on to the other Pandas and for that reason, Shifu had agreed to teach them, since Po had admittedly little success in actually teaching fighting techniques, whereas Shifu had a natural talent to teach any race the style best suited to them.

"Alright Po, what am I doing wrong." Tigress brought them back to topic.

"You're trying to force it."

"But I'm doing the exact same thing you do, down to the last twitch of my foot." she argued. "And don't get me started on the Chi, there has been no success at all, not even a small glow of the hand."

"Ti, it's not the movements alone. You have to let go of your worries and embrace everything."

"I don't know how." she sighed.

"Let me try to show you." he said and stepped behind her.

She watched in confusion as he took two pieces of twine and bound their ankles together before putting his paws into hers and linking their fingers so he could control her. A part of her screamed out, wanting to get out of his grasp but Po had become her best friend and she trusted him implicitly. She closed her eyes and let him move her, feeling the familiar movements she had done before.

"It's not just moving around slowly." his low and deep voice reverberated in her ear, sounding impossibly close and causing her heartbeat to go up for some reason. "You need to think about your life and accept it. Every facet of it."

"I don't know how." she whispered, her memory of her early childhood a painful one.

"Just follow my voice." he said in a whisper of his own and led his best friend, who kept her eyes closed and felt his heart beat against her back.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shifu was moving towards the peach tree, the training sessions with the Pandas over for today. Right now, they were headed into the village, where they would surely eat the kitchen of the restaurant of Po's father empty, something they had done twice since they arrived, which also had delighted the elderly goose since it brought in massive earnings.

He had to admit, he was impressed with those Pandas. While they weren't as intuitive with Kung Fu as Po was, who seemed to master any technique by just watching it once, like the Golden Lotus Clap, they picked up quickly and had, in one month, already learned more than other students in a year.

When he turned the last corner to the tree, he stopped in his tracks when he saw his adopted daughter and the Dragon Warrior in a tight embrace, her back against his chest with their feet tied together and his hands on hers, leading her movements. Shifu watched as Po went through the motions of inner peace, smiling at his mastery and he saw a water droplet fall on Tigress' hand, rolling down her arm and stopping at her chest when it soaked into her vest.

When that happened, he heard a sound he hadn't heard since he began training her as a cub. Tigress gave out a shrieking laugh of delight, proud of her accomplishment. He smiled at her achievement but decided to interrupt the two, since he still had to talk to Po about the other Pandas. He closed in on them just as Po untied their feet.

"See, you can do it." he heard Po say.

"I can't believe it." Tigress smiled back and their gazes locked.

"Ahem." Shifu interrupted, making both snap their heads around. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I need to talk to Po."

"I will meditate some more." Tigress said and bowed to both Shifu and Po who bowed back and took his staff.

"So, Master, what did you want to talk to me about?" Po asked Shifu as they walked away from the tree.

"I wanted to talk to you about your people but first, what did you and Tigress do?"

"She asked me to help her with the inner peace technique, she's unable to manage it. Also, since our celebration, she has been unable to focus her Chi." Po explained.

"Focusing one's Chi is a difficult task." Shifu said and eyed Po. "At least for most people. Even the other Masters barely manage to do it. None of the villagers have done it again."

"But at least Crane, Viper and the others have gotten a small flower to bloom. Tigress told me that she hadn't even gotten her hand to glow."

"I'm afraid Tigress is caught in a circle. She doesn't achieve inner peace, which frustrates her. That makes her try harder but the frustration increases the difficulty of achieving inner peace." Shifu sighed. "Tell me Po, in your opinion, will Tigress achieve inner peace some day?"

"I'm afraid not." Po sighed, making Shifu proud at his ability to read his daughter but sad at the same time because he himself had gotten to the same conclusion.

"And why not?"

"Because I only achieved inner peace when I learned about my past. All my life I had this worry in the back of my mind, that my parents abandoned me because I was a burden. But when I learned the real reason, I was able to accept it. Tigress doesn't have the same luxury. She was abandoned as a cub but nobody knows who dropped her off and why."

"No, I don't know anything either." Shifu said, forestalling Po's question.

"I wonder if there are any information at the orphanage where you adopted her." Po wondered.

"You could ask. But I highly doubt it." Shifu said. "Remember, they found Tigress in a basket in front of the door without any note attached to it."

"I'll go right now." Po said excited.

"Not tonight." Shifu shook his head. "You have another task and we still have to talk about you and your people."

"What about them?"

"They are making very good progress." Shifu said proudly. "It's possible that they could finish their training in less than three months."

"That's great!" Po replied excitedly. "But why did you need to talk to me specifically?"

"I would understand if you wanted to return with them to their village. They are your people after all."

"No, I am staying here." Po stated. "This was my home before I found my people and it will be my home in the future. I will visit them from time to time, knowing that they exist is joy enough."

"Good." Shifu nodded. "Now come with me."

Shifu led Po back into the palace and down into the dungeons. Walking past several empty cells, Po wondered where they were going until they arrived at a room filled with scrolls. There were less than the thousand scrolls of Kung Fu but still several hundred, neatly stacked up in three alcoves. A narrow tunnel to the right led to another room.

"What is all this? And what's over there?" Po asked, pointing to the narrow door.

"These are the teacher scrolls." Shifu explained. "They tell you the best ways to educate others in Kung Fu."

"And the other room?"

"Those are Oogway's personal scrolls. Nobody is allowed to touch them out of an emergency. And I mean nobody." Shifu glared at Po.

"Understood." Po nodded, his curiosity spiking nonetheless.

"Take these two scrolls and learn them." Shifu ordered, handing Po two scrolls from the bottom.

"Yes, master." Po nodded and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall.

"Dinner is in an hour. Your father is cooking." Shifu smiled and left Po alone.

* * *

"Stripey baby!" a tiny voice squealed, snapping Tigress out of her meditation, which didn't really work anyway, just before a mass bumped into her side.

"Hello, Lei Lei." Tigress smiled.

She looked down at the Panda cub and ran her hand over the little one's head. While she was, during the adventure in the Panda village, a little annoyed at the little Panda because of her clingy nature, she had really taken to the little one after it had worn her down with her sheer sweetness.

 _'Much like Po.'_ Tigress thought, her eyes going wide at the direction her thoughts went.

"What are you doing here?" she asked the little one.

"Stripey baby sad?" Lei Lei asked in her innocence.

"A little bit." Tigress admitted. "But don't tell anyone."

"I won't." Lei Lei giggled and held out one arm, the other still clutching the Tigress action figure.

"By the way, where did you get that action figure?" Tigress asked. "You had it at your village too."

"Po gave it to me." Lei Lei grinned. "So beautiful."

"He must really like you to part with that figure." Tigress said, knowing that the figure of her was Po's favorite.

"Li made dinner." Lei Lei giggled, pointing to the palace.

"Then lets go eat." Tigress smiled and took the little one into her arms, playing her on her shoulders and carrying her back.

As the others were on their way to the kitchen, Po was still sitting in the dungeon, reading the second scroll describing the best way to train a tiger, the strength and weaknesses of that particular race. He knew some of it already, since his best friend was a tiger, and she was ferocious in battle, strong and agile and he also knew some of her weaknesses like a tendency to become jealous, her armpit and the dry-heaving after hearing the word slurp.

"Hello, where did you come from?" Po asked into the air as a peach petal flew past him on an air current that wasn't there.

He watched it float into the other room, the one where Oogway's scrolls were located and where Shifu had forbidden him to go. Seeing it as a sign, and also thanks to his unstoppable curiosity, he got up and walked into the other, smaller room, seeing several rows of scrolls in two alcoves. He knew one of those scrolls since Shifu had read it to get information on Kai but others were still unknown. Po watched the peach petal float up and forward, landing on a certain scroll which he took and unrolled.

"Traveling through the spirit realm." Po read the title and unrolled it further.

The scroll described ways of using the spirit realm as a shortcut by entering it and exiting it again at a different place by focusing on the destination. Po knew it was possible, since he had entered and exited the spirit realm already but the scroll also said that it was a very difficult endeavor to concentrate enough to actually exit at a different place than where one entered.

Not only that, the scroll also described the possibility of taking someone with him, the way he had pulled Kai into the spirit realm proved that it was possible at least one way. And according to the scroll, the return to the real world was also possible with someone else in tow. He thought about trying it and, after a few seconds of contemplating, decided to go for it, since the peach petal had to be a sign.

He put his staff on his back and walked into one of the empty cells where he closed his eyes and took his left hand between his right thumb and index finger, lifting his pinkie finger up in preparation of the Wuxi Finger hold. Taking another deep breath and closing his eyes, he lowered the finger, not bothering to voice the action and felt the energy circle around him and peach petals caressing his fur.

"Dragon Warrior." an old but amused voice said, making Po open his eyes.

"Master Oogway." Po smiled and took a bow even though he was still floating.

"I see you have gotten my message. Though I didn't expect you to come to me immediately."

"Yes, I read your scroll." Po nodded. "Spirit world travel. Is it really possible to go back and appear at a different place than you entered the spirit worl?"

"Yes, but you can only return to places you have already visited before, since you need to visualize them. Otherwise you might appear high in the sky or inside a mountain."

"Oh, that would be bad." Po chuckled but got serious again. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"One of your fellow masters. Tigress." Oogway said seriously.

"Oh, what about her?" Po asked. "Is she in danger?"

"Yes."

"Is someone trying to hurt her?"

"She is in danger but not from an external enemy. She is at a crossroads and needs your help to stay on the path of light." Oogway told him.

"What do you mean? Tigress is awesome and she is dedicated to protecting others." Po argued.

"Yes. But deep inside her, a spark of jealousy has lit which could turn her on the dark path of destruction."

"Jealousy? Of whom?"

"You." Oogway pointed at Po.

"Me? Why would she be jealous of me? She already accepted that I'm the Dragon Warrior."

"Yes and she cares very deeply about you." Oogway smiled. "But she is also envious of your ability to master any technique quickly and seemingly without effort. And she hasn't been able to achieve inner peace or express her Chi since she did it last time."

"But during the celebration it came so easy to her." Po argued.

"That was because you were there."

"Me? What does my presence have to do with it? Master, what can I do?" Po asked.

"Help her achieve inner peace the same way you did." Oogway replied and floated away.

"Master, wait!" Po shouted but Oogway was already gone. "Damn, why can't these enlightened masters never make anything clear."

Po thought hard about Oogway's advice. He himself had achieved inner peace by learning the truth about his past and his parents, then accepting that even then he lived a pretty nice life, being loved by his adopted father even if the other kids had made fun of him for his size and clumsiness. He realized that Tigress had a similar origin but a different life, being abandoned by her parents without knowing why and growing up feared by other kids and then adopted by Shifu who never truly showed her love.

"Alright master Oogway, I guess it's time for me to help Tigress find out about her parents." Po said to himself and took his staff from his back.

He concentrated hard on the peach tree and dipped the staff into the Chi ocean under him, creating another Yin Yang symbol like he had done when he had returned after defeating Kai. With a flash, he was gone and reappeared floating right under the peach tree, the peach petals announcing his arrival before he fell the two feet to the ground.

Unbeknownst to him, a pair of eyes had watched him leave the spirit world and the owner of those eyes vowed to himself to wait for the Dragon Warrior to come back so he could return to the real world as well and take his revenge.

* * *

"Ah, Po, there you are." Li greeted his son, placing another bowl of dumplings on the table.

"Po, something wrong?" Tigress asked, seeing Po look at her intently.

"No, everything's okay." Po looked away and sat down, leaning his staff against the table.

"Son, there you go." Li said and put an extra bowl in front of Po.

"Thanks dad." Po grinned and began eating his dumplings.

"Mister Shan, these are amazing." Tigress commented.

"Please, call me Li." Li said. "That goes for all of you." he added into the round.

"Po, did you do something?" Monkey asked.

"Why?" Po returned.

"I wondered as well." Viper spoke up. "It almost looks as if you are glowing."

"And why is there a peach petal on your back?" Mantis wanted to know, jumping on Po's back and taking the petal off of him.

"I... uh..." Po stammered, unsure whether to tell them of his formidable achievement of doing the spirit world translocation but risking Shifu's ire in the process since he disobeyed Shifu's direct order, even though Oogway called him.

"You were snacking on peaches again, weren't you." Tigress smiled at him.

"Yeah, you got me." Po chuckled, happy to have an excuse.

While they ate, Li regaled the others with a tale of Po as a baby, when he was still with them, making them laugh, even Po. He lost his smile when he thought back to the image of his mother placing him into the radish basket before running away to distract the wolves while his little arms stretched out in a futile attempt to get her back.

The others felt his sadness, Li most of them since he also lost his wife on that fateful day. Tigress looked at both of them with sympathy, knowing how it felt to lose a parent. But unlike them, her own past was still a mystery. Had she been a disappointment to her parents? Was it because she was a girl? Were her parents good or bad people?

After Shifu dismissed them to their rooms, the Five walked to the barracks. Tigress noticed Po hanging back with Shifu, talking in low tones and sometimes pointing to her. Standing at her door, she watched and simply admired her best friend. He had changed much from the clumsy panda and while he still looked pretty much the same, his assured demeanor made him that much more attractive.

 _'What the...?'_ she shook her head at the thought and fled into her room.

"Po, you should turn in too now." Shifu said.

"Master, there's one more thing I need to talk to you about, in private."

"Alright, follow me." Shifu nodded and led Po into his own room, where the burning candles turned it into a sanctuary of peace. "What's on your mind?"

"I disobeyed your order."

"Which one?" Shifu lifted his eyebrows, not really surprised.

"When I was reading the scrolls you have me, a peach petal flew past me, without wind I might add, into the other room and landed on one of Oogway's personal scrolls. I took it and read it."

"Oh?" Shifu was more intrigued than angry. "What did it say?"

"It described a technique called spirit world translocation." Po told him. "A way to use the spirit world as a short cut."

"WHAT?" Shifu exclaimed. "How is that possible?"

"Well, you know that I used the Wuxi Finger Hold on myself to bring Kai back to the spirit realm, right?" Po asked and Shifu nodded. "And you saw me returning."

"Yes, I did."

"And the scroll said that it's possible for someone to go into the spirit realm and reappear somewhere else, as long as that someone has already visited that point so he can visualize it."

"Po, did you try that already?" Shifu asked.

"Yes. Not just because to try it but I sensed that the floating peach petal was a sign from Oogway and I was right."

"You visited Oogway?" Shifu was shocked. "What did he say?"

"He told me that Tigress may be on a path to darkness."

"WHAT?" Shifu shouted again. "My daughter?"

"Yes, she is jealous of my ability to absorb new knowledge and techniques and that might trigger a dark turn in her attempts to match me."

"We can't allow that. Did he also say how to prevent that?"

"He gave hints." Po nodded. "I think we need to find out why her parents left her at the orphanage. I achieved inner peace after finding out about mine and accepting my life. I believe Tigress can't do that without knowing the reasons why she was left behind."

"And how do you propose to achieve that?"

"By traveling into the south-western parts of China where the tiger tribes live."

"Po, are you sure? The region is dangerous. Granted, the tribes on the Chinese side of the border are comparatively quiet and peaceful to their non-tiger neighbors but at the border itself and across it there are internecine skirmishes between the tribes." Shifu counseled Po.

"I know but I still have to try."

"What do you propose?"

"Me and Tigress will go. She needs to learn about her past and I can keep an eye on her and further her training while we're traveling."

"Alright." Shifu sighed, bowing to the inevitable. "But don't just pack your bags and leave, I want you to go to sleep now and tomorrow make a proper plan. Where to travel, how you get there and so on."

"Yes, master." Po bowed and turned to leave.

"Oh, and Po?" Shifu stopped him.

"Master?"

"The next time you go into the spirit realm to visit Oogway... take me with you."

"Yes, master." Po smiled and left for his room.

As Po got into bed and lay there, he looked at the ceiling, his mind locked in thought about how to undertake the task he had set himself. With a start, he realized that he had to ask Tigress if she even wanted to go but he was determined to convince her if she was hesitant because the last thing he wanted to do was fight Tigress in any other way but sparring.

* * *

 **So, end of Chapter 1. Thoughts? Comments are appreciated but if you flame, I will bring Sally Struthers to your door and she will make you feel very very bad about yourself :D**

 **Review please :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**So, Chapter 2, hope you like it ^^**

 **Jamesdude: my updating speed depends as always on my schedule. I do write two other stories simultaneously to this one. And yes, there will be other characters I create for this fic.**

 **By the way, if you find grammar errors, remember that I'm German ;)**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the franchise. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting in a small apartment ^^**

* * *

" _So Oogway, this was the one destined to stop me?" Kai chuckled menacingly, holding up the green crystal hanging on a chain around his neck while walking towards them. "I will have his Chi and then ALL OF THEIRS!"_

 _Tigress startled, as did the other Pandas, when Kai's spirit blade crashed into the ground and sawed in a circle around them, digging a shallow groove into the rock and creating sparks as it moved. She watched Po turn around, his face showing a desperation she had never seen on him before, and knew her face showed the same mix of fear and resignation that the others had._

 _Lei Lei started crying and she could do nothing but shield the little one's view of the monster in front of them, holding her tight and hoping that the process she had already witnessed with her adopted father and master and the rest of the Furious Five wasn't a painful one._

" _But first, you." Kai said and drove one of his blades into Po's back, making him cry out in pain._

" _No!" Tigress shouted as she watched Po disappear into a ball of light before Kai took his Chi into himself. The last thing she saw was the blade shooting towards her._

Tigress awoke drenched in sweat, breathing heavily and her heart beating so fast, it felt as if it would jump out of her chest. Feeling a moment of panic, she looked around and saw the spartan furnishings of her room, reminding her of where she was. Sitting up, she strained her ears and heard the subdued sounds of snoring coming from the room across from her and the knowledge that Po was there helped her to calm down quickly.

She cursed as she sat up, angry at her weakness. She had nights when her nightmares had turned into good dreams but those had been far and between. Ever since their return from the Panda village, the frequency of her nightmares had multiplied until she had barely a night where she slept through. Those nightmares had started a lot sooner, the first plaguing her after she had witnessed Po supposedly dying at the hands of Shen, when her world had shattered until he had returned to win the day. Yet the nightmares had not only stayed but changed to Shen killing Po again and again and only the fact that she could see Po every day eased her fears.

After she had again witnessed Po's death at the hand of Ke-Pa, this time even having the confirmation that had actually died, the nightmares had intensified. But instead of Po getting resurrected by the peach tree sapling, in her dreams he had stayed dead and she had to witness the demon killing every living being until only she was left. And then Kai came and she had again witnessed Po sacrificing himself for the greater good, pulling Kai into the spirit world.

A look out the window told her that sunrise was about an hour away. Tigress got up and opened her door. She tiptoed across the hall and put her ear against Po's door, the sounds of snoring louder but still less than she was used to hearing before his trip to the Panda village. Acting on impulse, she opened the door and entered the room, kneeling on the floor and simply watching her best friend sleep, the visible proof of his survival calming her more than any meditative exercise.

"Tigress?" a sleepy voice interrupted her reverie.

"Sorry Po, didn't mean to wake you." she apologized.

"What are you doing in my room?" he asked.

"I... uh...I was...I had..." she stammered, unsure about how or even if to share.

"You had another nightmare, didn't you?" he guessed and sat up.

"How do you know I have nightmares?"

"I caught you a couple of times, thrashing and mumbling in your sleep. You looked like you were devastated and afraid. Every time I found you like this, I sat beside you, held your hand and whispered that everything would be okay and usually that helped calm you down." he told her, explaining the few times her nightmares had turned back to good dreams.

"Thank you, Po." she said, turning away. "I'm sorry for disturbing you."

"What are your dreams about?"

"I... don't want to talk about it." she said sadly, unable to look at him.

"Tigress, wait." he stopped her.

Tigress turned around again to face him and was surprised when Po simply hugged her. For a few seconds, she stood rigid, her arms at her side, the same way their hug had gone down after the defeat of Shen. But this time, Tigress eased into it, wrapping her arms around his big frame and enjoying the closeness and feeling of safety he provided.

He didn't talk, simply held her. She buried her head into his fur, noticing for the first time, how cuddly he was but as soon as that thought went through her head, her eyes bulged out and she broke the hug, stepping back a step and going back to her rigid posture.

"Um... thank you Po, I appreciate it." she said. "I have to go now."

"One more thing." Po held up his hand. "I have a plan to help you achieve inner peace."

"How?" she asked.

"We're going to take a little trip." he smiled.

"To...?"

"To where the tigers are."

"I don't understand."

"I think that if you ever want to achieve inner peace, you need to find out about your past, like I have. I'm sure that once you know why you were left at the orphanage, it should come easier to you."

"But Po..." she started.

"I already spoke to Shifu and he agrees."

"But what about the valley?"

"Tigress, it's only you and me going. The rest of the five are staying here, Shifu will be here too. As will the Pandas he's training, they could help if the four face a threat they can't handle alone."

"And if what I find out is even worse than not knowing?" she tried her last card. "Ignorance can be bliss."

"True, but I think that even if your parents turn out to be or have been the worst beings in existence, it still will give you closure."

"Fine." she sighed, bowing to the inevitable. "When are we going?"

"Either tomorrow or in two days." he replied. "This won't be some spur of the moment trip. I will spend today preparing for it, that means planning a route, putting together the necessary gear and so on."

"Alright. What is my job?"

"You do what you do best. Train." he smiled and she couldn't help but return it before leaving his room.

* * *

During the day, Tigress spent her morning in the training hall, honing her skills on the tortoise shell. In the afternoon, she sat under the peach tree again, trying to calm her raging mind. During fighting or training, she was focused on it but now, she couldn't help but think about what she had felt when Po had hugged her.

She was proud of her independence, her strength and focus. The wall she had built around her heart was something she had needed to endure her youth, when Shifu hadn't shown her any love, only scolded her for lack of speed or focus or skill. But since Po had arrived, that infuriating Panda had slowly wormed his way through that wall, like a plant pushing its roots through the mortar and over time, destroying even the strongest stone.

"Tigress?" she heard a voice from behind her.

"Hello, Viper." Tigress greeted her friend and partner.

"Po told us what you two are about to do." Viper said. "Are you really going through with it?"

"Yes." Tigress nodded and looked down at the valley.

"And do you think it will work?"

"I don't know." Tigress sighed. "But Po is our teacher and if he thinks it's worth a try, I should go along. Also, Shifu agreed and if Po convinced him, there must be something to it."

"Well, I have never seen Po so focused. Even his father volunteered to help."

"How is Li going to help?" Tigress asked. "Is he going too?"

"No." Viper shook her head. "But he said he would take care of the provisions, so you have enough food on the road."

"I'm pretty sure we will find a few vendors or inns along the way." Tigress chuckled at Li's behavior and smiled. "Now I know where he gets it."

"Gets what?" Viper asked, having heard her last mumble. "And who is he?"

"Uh... nobody." Tigress quickly said.

"I saw that smile." Viper prodded her with her tail. "Spill."

"No!"

"Talk. Is it about Po?" Viper giggled and watched Tigress deflate visibly. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Tigress sighed again. "Ever since he came into our lives, I have gotten more and more confused."

"No, you opened up."

"You noticed that too, didn't you."

"Yes. It became very obvious ever since Po got you back from the Garnet Palace." Viper smiled at her friend. "What exactly happened there? You never told us. We always thought that a place like that would be your paradise, with its focus only on Kung Fu."

"For a while it was." Tigress finally spoke after almost a minute of silence, unsure of how much to share.

"Well, what happened?" Viper prodded again.

"You're not going to give up, don't you?" Tigress asked.

"No." Viper winked. "I promise not to tell anyone if it helps."

"Fine." Tigress huffed but decided that it might be good to share, at least that information. "For several weeks, I trained hard every day, from morning to night. Different exercises to build my strength, focus and balance. But Mistress Mugan was never once satisfied. No matter how hard I trained or how well I fought."

"Then what happened?" Viper interrupted.

"Nobody of the palace staff even talked to me. And one evening, I sat on my bed and I was bored. Also, sad and lonely. Po had packed his action figures into my backpack, except the figure of me and on that evening, I took up his figure and realized that I missed him. All you guys. But him the most, with his antics and cheery mood. Then Mugan locked me into my room after I told her that I would have to leave again."

"How did Po get you out?"

"Apparently, he knocked Mugan's former pupil, Wu Yong, out and came in. After he found me, he opened the door the only way he could. Instead of simply unlocking the latch, he crashed through the door, taking part of the wall with it." Tigress chuckled at the memory. "Then we escaped. Wu Yong had the idea of destroying Mugan's water bowls so we could beat her. Then me and Po came back."

"That's Po." Viper chuckled.

"That he is." Tigress nodded. "From then on, I accepted his antics, even though my big panda still drives me crazy sometimes."

"It's great to see you open up a bit." Viper smiled, having noticed Tigress' use of the words my big panda instead of the big panda when describing Po but deciding not to mention it to not scare her off. "Anyway, you might want to come into the palace. If you're going on that trip, you should have some input."

"Okay." Tigress nodded and got up, waling back to the palace and into the room next to the kitchen, where Po was bent over a map of China with several more maps of the various provinces hanging over a chair.

"Hey, Ti." Po greeted her with her nickname. Another thing that was unique to him, since he was the only one who used it and the only one who she would allow to use it at all.

"Busy, I see." she commented on his notes.

"Yes."

"What's the travel time estimate?" she asked.

"Depending on the weather and if we find trade caravans to travel with." Po replied. "I sent Zeng down if any depart soon in the direction we will travel."

"What's the route so far?"

"We'll take the main road down to Zhongyang city, then on Nan city and once there, we will have to find some way to get to the town of Xinan."

"Why Xinan?" Tigress looked at the map.

"It's the closest town that borders the tiger territories. " Po told her. "Shifu told me that the tigers on the chinese side of the border are relatively quiet and even trade with Xinan sometimes but there are internecine clashes between the tribes."

"Then how do you think will we get information on me?"

"I checked the town records about that area. There are a few dozen tigers living in Xinan, apparently they are exiles from their tribes. I'm hoping that one of them might know something." he shrugged. "Also, I doubt that a tiger tribe from across the border brought you to the orphanage here."

"Makes sense." she had to admit.

"Ah, there you two are." Li suddenly came into the room. "Po, I'm done with the provisions, want to see what I whipped up?"

"Sure." Po nodded and both he and Tigress followed Li into the kitchen.

"Look." Li presented a bowl with what looked like small pebbles.

"What are these?" Po asked, picking one up and finding it soft and a bit sticky. "They smell like dumplings."

"That's because they are dumplings." Li smiled. "It's a trick we Panda's have developed for when we had to travel longer distances."

"Wait, you made the food smaller?"

"Yes." Li smiled and took one pebble, placing it on the table. "Put a few drops of water on it."

Tigress watched in fascination as Po let a few drops of water fall on the little dumpling. At first nothing happened but after a few seconds, the dumpling began growing until it was roughly twice the size of the ones Po usually made when he cooked. Po took the dumpling and smelled it before biting off a piece and handing the remaining one to Tigress who took and simply ate it, much to his surprise.

"That is so awesome!" Po exclaimed. "Now we can pack a lot of food in little room."

"Exactly." Li nodded. "And I also made something for Tigress."

"Do I dare ask?" she wondered.

"Po told me your favorite food is Tofu, though I have no idea how anyone could find that stuff delicious." Li shuddered in disgust. "But I made several blocks of Tofu and shaped them so you can place them in various corners of your packs. Saves room for other things."

"Thank you." Tigress smiled. "That's very considerate of you."

"It's the least I can do." Li smiled back. "You're practically family."

"I... uh... have to go pack." Tigress stammered and fled the kitchen, Li's talk about being part of his family too much for her already confused mind right now.

"I see you have witnessed the single-mindedness of the pandas." Shifu's voice stopped her at her room.

"Good evening Master." Tigress bowed. "Yes, it's something to behold."

"Right now, I'm your father, not your master." Shifu said.

"Baba, have you really agreed to this?"

"Yes." Shifu nodded. "Po made a very good argument and I sensed no falsehood in him. I think knowing about your past will help you achieve inner peace."

"But what if my parents really abandoned me because they saw me as something to be disposed of?" Tigress asked sadly.

"If that is true, then so be it. But you will at least know the reason. But no matter why, remember that you have a family here."

"Thank you baba." Tigress smiled at her adopted father. "I need to pack."

"Master Shifu, master Tigress." Zeng's voice came from the other end of the hallway.

"What is it Zeng?" Shifu asked.

"The Dragon Warrior told me to tell you that the trip will begin tomorrow morning at nine. A trade caravan will leave the valley for Zhongyang city."

"Very well." Shifu nodded. "Thank you Zeng."

"I will pack now." Tigress announced and turned to her room as Zeng left them alone.

She walked into her room and took out her pack, putting a few vests and pants in it, along with two blankets and adding one of the robes she had gotten for herself in Gongmen city. The rest of her pack would be filled later with the food and water they had to take with them and a purse of money was best placed in her pants where nobody would dare steal it.

Deciding that today she couldn't achieve anything more, she headed to bed.

* * *

"Son, how are you." Mr. Ping greeted his adopted son as Po walked into the restaurant.

"I'm well, dad." Po smiled at the goose. "I need to tell you something though."

"What is it, Po?"

"Tomorrow, me and Master Tigress will go on a trip."

"Oh." Mr. Ping sad sadly. "How long will you be gone?"

"Several weeks at least."

"Why this time? Is China in danger again? Another spirit warrior? Or another demon?"

"No, I traveled into the spirit realm and had a talk with Master Oogway. And to prevent a dark future, I need Tigress to find out about her past."

"If you say it is important, then I believe you." Mr. Ping nodded. "When do you leave?"

"At nine. We will travel to Zhongyang city with a trade caravan that's leaving from here."

"How will you pay for things?"

"I have some money. We will take most of our food supplies with us. All we need to pay for then is transportation and lodgings." Po said. "I hope that the caravan leaders will agree to take us with them in exchange for us guarding them. Having both the Dragon Warrior and the most awesome Kung Fu tiger in all of China along should go a long way."

"Then I hope you will find what you're looking for quickly." Mr. Ping hugged his son. "Before you leave, come by the restaurant tomorrow. I will give you some food for the road that you can eat on the first two days."

"Great, thanks dad." Po smiled at his father. "See you tomorrow."

After conquering the thousand steps again, he quickly went into his room and packed his backpack, adding a few more pants and blankets along with two sticks that could be used to make the blankets into a tent, should the weather force them to use shelter. His thick fur make any cold weather meaningless to him but that didn't mean that he wanted it wet, his regular bulk was heavy enough to lug around, he didn't need to add dozens of pounds to it.

Satisfied, he went to bed and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Unfortunately for Tigress, sleep wouldn't come. Her mind was whirling with the events of the day. From learning that she and Po were going on a trip, the discovery of his cuddly fur, her opening to Viper, the approval of the trip by Shifu and Po's surprising seriousness in planning this sojourn, just to help her improve herself.

 _'Oh, his cuddly fur.'_ Tigress thought and smiled dreamily. _'Damn it, stop that.'_

Scolding herself, she got up and did push-ups, squats and anything else she could think of to get tired. An hour later, she was breathing hard and simply fell on the bed, falling into a restless unconsciousness that wasn't real sleep but did at least give her some strength for the surely hard journey they would start. She was feeling something she hadn't felt in a long time. Anxiety. Suddenly, the gong ripped her out of the little sleep she got, making her scramble to get out into the hallway.

"Good morning, master." the Five greeted, left fist in right palm, at least her and Monkey, since the other three didn't have hands.

"Good morning, students." Po greeted them back, Shifu standing behind and to the right of him. "I'm still not used to this."

"Po, we talked about this." Shifu scolded, but without much force. "You're their teacher now too, you need to act the part."

"But you are still Shifu. The grand master of Kung Fu." Po argued.

"Ahem." Tigress got their attention, the Five still standing at their doors.

"Oh, right." Po nodded. "Tigress, after breakfast you and I will head into town to get to the caravan to start our journey. The rest of you will do morning training under Shifu's tutelage."

"Can't we say goodbye to you?" Crane asked.

"Of course you can." Shifu nodded. "We will all accompany these two into town."

The group filed into the kitchen, with Po cooking his last breakfast for them, at least for a while. Li was still sleeping, his Panda body still not used to getting up at sunrise. As they ate, the big Panda joined them, mumbling excuses for being late and beginning to eat the bean buns Po had made.

When breakfast neared its end, Po and Tigress got up and brought their backpacks into the kitchen to put the food and water skins into their packs. Tigress was impressed by Li's accomplishment, the Tofu he made for her, as well as the wrappings, shaped like rings, which made her able to place it on the outer edges of her pack, encircling her clothes without soiling them.

Po too packed water skinds and the shrunken dumplings into his pack, which too were packed in wrappings shaped in ways that made them easy to store without taking up too much room. He also packed some ingredients to make some soup himself, for those days they could actually cook outside and when they were done, both closed their packs and placed them close to the door, ready to be picked up.

Half an hour later, they were walking into town, Tigress feeling butterflies in her stomach. Soon, they would be on their way to find out about her past, something she was both dreading and anticipating in equal amounts. She looked to her left and watched Po talking and laughing with his father, happy that he was going with her. She doubted that she would be able to to it alone or even with someone else. But that big Panda gave her an inner strength she never knew she even lacked.

"Alright, we'll have to make a short detour to my dad." Po announced, making Tigress wonder what he meant until he walked into the restaurant of Mr. Ping.

"Ah, there you are." Mr. Ping greeted them, waddling over to them to hug both Po and Li.

"Good morning, Mister Ping." Shifu greeted the goose. "Is Mahjong tonight still on?"

"Of course." Ping nodded with a grin. "Though I won't begrudge you if you surrender right now."

"Bring it on, goose." Shifu growled, still miffed that the old goose kept beating him in that game.

"Dad, you said you had something for our trip?" Po asked.

"Oh yes, let me get it." Mr. Ping nodded and waddled back into the kitchen, returning with two big bags. "Here you go."

"What is it?" Po asked, opening one.

"I made a big batch of my secret ingredient soup for you. I put them into four water-proof pouches each, so you can drink it if you lack bowls on the road."

"Thanks dad." Po smiled and handed Tigress the second bag. "We have to go now."

"Good luck son." Mr. Ping said and hugged both him and Tigress, much to her surprise. "Be back soon."

They left the restaurant and walked to the western part of town where the caravan would leave from. Tigress saw the nine carts, two beasts of burden tied to each cart and their handlers already sitting on the perches, waiting for the journey to start.

"Ah, our passengers have arrived." the leader, an older sheep, greeted them.

"Yeah, sorry we're late, we had to make a little detour first." Po apologized.

"It's okay, it was only two minutes."

"What do we owe you?" Po asked and took out his purse.

"Nothing." the sheep waved him off. "Having the Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress with us to ward off bandits is payment enough."

"Much obliged." Po bowed to him, Tigress following his example.

"Well, hop on." the sheep pointed to the central carriage where a bit of room was open between the boxes and sacks.

Po climbed onto the carriage and stored his backpack and soup bag on it, then helped Tigress climb up as well, who also stored her packs on the carriage. The sheep gave the signal and the convoy started moving, the first carriage leaving the trade depot as their friends waved their arms in goodbye.

"Goodbye." Po shouted, waving himself, Tigress waving as well but staying quiet.

"Come back soon." Viper shouted after them as the distance grew and grew.

"Well, master Tigress, we're on our way." Po smiled at his friend, holding her at the shoulder.

"Yes, that we are." Tigress nodded, slightly pushing against his touch while looking back at the receding forms of their friends.

* * *

 **Done here. Had to sit at work for two extra hours due to some network problems and decided to hammer this down while waiting for the system analysis to finish.**

 **By the way, for those who might have been confused about the timeline. While the Kung Fu Panda TV show is supposed to be continuation of the first movie, a villager in the Enter the Dragon episode commented about Po beating Lord Shen, so at least that episode took place after the second movie.**

 **Review please :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**AlienHeart1915: Of course the tv show isn't mentioned or alluded to in the movies. For one, a lot of movie goers probably wouldn't watch a cartoon on TV (so mentioning it would confuse them) while the other way around is much more likely, and also, the TV show didn't exist before the first two movies. So, for the sake of this story, the TV show and movies are existing in the same universe and will be alluded to a few times ;)**

 **Jamesdude: why is it so important to you when OCs are turning up?**

 **Guest: I appreciate your reviews but I don't speak spanish :(**

 **As for the distance unit I use in this chapter: a yin is roughly 33 meters or 36 yards. A zhang is a tenth of a yin, so 3.3 meters or 3.6 yards.**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

Tigress dreamed that she was lying in a soft field of cotton, making her extremely comfortable and relaxed. Her body in the real world was also relaxed, sleeping on the blanket under the stars while the fire burned to embers and the rhino guards on night duty made their rounds.

They had been on the road for three days. For a time, they walked beside the wagons, not wanting to impose too much but Po complained incessantly about his sore feet and soon sat down next to one of the steersman, trying to coax the poor sheep into a conversation, while the sheep tried not to faint from having the Dragon Warrior next to him. Or maybe it was from his sweaty musk.

A shift under her pulled her from sleep, making her open her eyes. Tigress noticed that it was still dark while the fire was already very low, with barely any flame left. She stretched her legs and put her head back down onto the fluffy pillow she had below her, closing her eyes and trying to fall back asleep.

 _'Wait, a fluffy pillow?'_ she thought and opened her eyes, finding herself lying close to Po with her head on his upper left chest. _'What the hell?'_

She quickly rolled off of him and got up, hoping that her sudden movement wouldn't wake him, and left the circle of wagons to get some air. The last thing she needed was him noticing her using him as a pillow and liking it. The last time something similar had happened, it had taken three months for him to stop teasing her about it and only after she beat him silly in one of their sparring sessions.

Back then it had been her dreaming and fawning over the Midnight Stranger, whom she had thought to be a rebel for a cause, attractive beyond measure due to his mystique until she had found out that it had been Po all along. But while she had said back then that she needed to throw up, she had really just needed to leave so the others wouldn't see her blushing.

"Master Tigress, everything okay?" one of the rhino guards asked her.

"Yes, I just couldn't sleep." Tigress replied. "I will do some patrol rounds on the outer perimeter."

"That would be helpful, since you are a tiger." the rhino nodded and Tigress took off.

She went between the trees and got on all fours, crouching through the underbrush, proud of herself for not making a sound. She could hear the sounds of the camp in the near distance, the cracking of the fire, the sounds of footsteps made by the rhino guards and of course, Po's snoring.

The thought of her panda brought another smile to her face, a smile that quickly turned into a frown when she realized what she had thought. Since when was he HER panda? True, he was her best friend, her fellow Kung Fu master, her brother in arms but more? No, he couldn't be. She couldn't let it happen.

"Dammit." she cursed when she stepped on a twig.

She needed to focus. They were heading into dangerous territory and she last thing she needed was being distracted. She resumed her patrol, moving in a wide circle around the camp, listening for sounds other than the ones coming from the camp. As soon has the darkness receded, the first rays of light appearing on the horizon, she headed back, seeing the old sheep waking up the steersman while Po was already sitting at the renewed fire to make breakfast.

They continued the journey for another week, both Po and Tigress deciding to sit on one of the wagons. Po had managed to get the steersman to talk and they freely exchanged knowledge and recipes. Tigress, meanwhile, was asleep on the back of the wagon, perched upon to sacks with grain in them.

To prevent herself from accidentally cuddling with Po again, she had kept up her nightly patrols, much to the relief of the rhino guards on night duty. Since Tigress was a tiger, she had enhanced senses of hearing and smell which warned of upcoming danger but during all this time, nobody attacked the caravan apart from mosquitoes.

Now it was almost night again and the caravan people were sitting around the fire. According to the guards, the area they were in now was a bit more dangerous than the one they had left and it showed in their way of protecting the caravan. It was evident that the old sheep knew what he was doing, the way he organized his wagons into a circle for the night. The back of each wagon was like a fortress door, sturdy and thick and all nine wagons standing like that made it nigh impossible for anyone to break through in large numbers or for individuals to exit the circle with loot in hand.

The beasts of burden pulling the wagons were prone on the ground, asleep after a hard days work and after being fed. Tigress looked at the wagons and realized how rather unprofitable a caravan like this was, if a third of the space on the wagons had to be reserved for food and feed. She looked around and watched the other people in their troupe, the sheep steering the wagons and the half a dozen rhinos hired as guards.

All were eating with gusto, making Tigress smile. On the first evening, Po had volunteered to do the cooking and after some hesitancy, all had dug in as soon as the leader had tasted Po's soup. Po and Tigress had also shared some of Mr. Ping's secret ingredient soup with the others, who had inhaled it like a fish did water, though they had refrained from sharing the dumplings and tofu, deeming it needed on their later stages of the journey.

"Is it just me or is it getting colder?" Tigress asked around.

"Never noticed it." Po shrugged.

"Of course not, you're a panda." Tigress chuckled. "You rolled through snow without freezing.

"I agree." the old sheep nodded. "It seems winter is coming early this year."

"But we're heading south, shouldn't it get warmer?" Po asked.

"South doesn't always mean warm." the old sheep explained. "Zhongyang City has had terrible winters in its history."

"What about Nan City or the route to there?" Tigress wanted to know.

"Same. If you're unlucky, you won't find a caravan heading there soon enough and have to hike alone. If winter really does come early, the road will be snowed over, making it hard to navigate. Is Nan City your destination?"

"No, just another stopover." Po said. "Our destination is the town of Xinan."

Po's statement caused the entire flock of sheep to mutter between themselves, some looking fearful, others dumbfounded as if it was a miracle that someone wanted to go there. Even the rhino guards looked apprehensive at the mention of the southwestern most City in civilized China.

"What's wrong?" Tigress asked.

"Xinan is not a nice place for people like us." the old sheep sighed. "The tigers bordering it are habitually assaulting the city, even if they traded with them the day before."

"Yeah, I was there once during an assault." one of the rhino guards suddenly spoke up. "Only a small number of attackers but they came into the city dressed as traders. That was before they threw off their cloaks and revealed the armor and cleavers. They killed over a hundred civilians."

"These tigers wear armor?" Po asked.

"Yes. Good armor too. Overlapping sheets of metal, very sturdy and tough to get through. The weakness is the armpits and where the neck meets the helmet, since they don't use gorgets so they can move their heads. And the face of course, since they keep that open so they can bite." the rhino explained.

"Good to know, thank you." Po nodded, uncomfortable with the thought of having to kill another being.

Tigress wondered if she really wanted to continue if her race was warlike and aggressive like this. She knew that she had the aggressive streak as well, something she often needed to control during fights so she wouldn't go too far but would she want to know that her parents were slaughtering their way across southwestern China?

"You're not like that." Po whispered to her.

"How do you know what I was thinking?" she returned shocked.

"Ti, I know you." he smiled and turned to his blanket, lying down and quickly falling asleep.

Tigress smiled at his prone form, glad to have a friend like him. He has turned into a kind of anchor for her, something to ground her. Thanks to him, her Kung Fu abilities had grown as well because with him, she could let loose more during sparring than against the other masters.

She got up and left the protective circle of the wagons to do her nightly rounds. They weren't in a forest anymore so the area around the wagons was open and very visible to her attuned eyes. She saw small feral animals scurry around, none even remotely big enough to pose any threat to their group.

A breeze made her shiver, announcing the arrival of colder air. Tigress thought about Po's statement and growled quietly, envy of his thick fur flaring up inside her. If it weren't for the sake of decency, he wouldn't even need clothes, even in winter. While she made due with either her pants and vest combination or her robe, which was her clothing of choosing if they weren't training or on missions, a cold winter could make her freeze easily even with the clothes on.

How uncomfortable that was had been apparent during her trip to the Panda village, when she had braved snowy mountains and snowfall to warn Po of Kai's impending arrival. The village itself had been rather balmy, thanks to numerous torches, ovens and of course a large number of body heat producing Pandas. Another cold breeze made her shiver again and she wished that she could curl up into Po's fur again to get warm.

 _'Dammit, focus!'_ she scolded herself.

She couldn't allow herself to think like that. Even if her feelings really went deeper than their friendship, nothing could ever come out of it. He was a panda, she was a tiger. He was the Dragon Warrior. Defender of China. A symbol. She didn't know for sure but there surely were certain rules in place to govern how the Dragon Warrior had to behave and what he was allowed to do in terms of relationships. Growling once more to banish those thoughts, she continued her patrol until the morning dawned.

* * *

"Tigress, wake up." Po shook her awake roughly.

"What is it?" she mumbled, still tired from her patrol.

"Bandits." Po told her, snapping her awake immediately.

"Where?" she asked and hopped off the wagon, seeing a group of about twenty boars standing close together three yin away, the rhino guards from their caravan having closed ranks to defend themselves and their charges.

"Get ready to feel the THUNDER!" Po shouted and started running towards the boars, Tigress hot in his heels.

"What's the plan Dragon Warrior?" she asked, seeing the rhino guards looking on and the boars looking nervous, not having expected two enemies to actually attack them.

"Rolling avalanche!" Po said loudly, making Tigress' mouth turn into a wicked smile.

They had developed that move as an enhancement to their Double Death Strike technique after defeating Kai when Po had first tried to banish him by hiding in a ball of snow and rolling towards Kai. While it worked best downhill, they could also do it on flat ground if they got close enough to their enemy. Doing some calculation in her head, she knew that they were almost at that point.

The boars moved even closer together, not knowing what to expect, which suited Po and Tigress just fine. When they were half a yin away, Po turned in full stride and straightened his arms. Tigress grabbed them and jumped sideways while Po kept turning in a circle, giving her a great momentum. When she was between Po and the boars, four zhang separating them, she planted her feet into the ground while Po jumped the same way she had, their continued grip making him move around her.

With a groan, she used his momentum and flung him towards the boars, her aim true. Po rolled himself into a ball and hit the ground two zhang in front of them, his speed even higher than their running tempo. The boars lifted her weapons in shock when they saw the three hundred pound, black and white mass of muscle, bone and fat roll towards them until Po hit them with a bone crushing force, scattering them into all directions.

Before the first boar had even recovered from the shock, Tigress was among them, kicking and punching faces, backs, stomachs, arms and legs. Po came to a stop and jumped up as well, entering the fray and fighting his way to Tigress until they were back to back. Both let instinct take over, fists blocking attacks and legs kicking out. Each covered the others back, turning away a spear that would have skewered Tigress or deflecting a sword that might have cut into the Panda's legs.

The whole fight took less than two minutes. The remaining boars, seeing their comrades on the ground, moaning in pain and holding injured extremities, lowered their weapons and fled as fast as their short legs carried them. As Po and Tigress walked back to the caravan, they could hear the rhino guards and sheep cheer.

"That was amazing." the lead guard laughed, clapping Po on the shoulder as he passed.

"Don't mention it." Po shrugged. "Just doing our job."

Tigress went back to the wagon and climbed onto the sacks that she used as a bed, throwing the blanket over her. She closed her eyes and listened to Po telling the steersmen about the fight itself, explaining the technique they did, making her smile when she heard him praise her profusely. A few minutes later, she was asleep again.

The rest of the trip was a miserable experience for both of the them. While no bandits barred their way, the temperature had dropped markedly and a persistent rain had begun falling. It wasn't even rain but a steady drizzle, like the spray they got from standing to close to the waterfall in the dragon grotto.

Tigress felt miserable. Her fur was constantly wet, her clothes as well and it was cold. It was tough to get a fire going at night and she had given up her nightly patrols, the wet weather making it impossible to smell out intruders. She wished that she had a leathery hide like the beasts pulling the wagons or Po's apparent indifference to cold.

He complained incessantly about the weight the water added by wetting down his fur but he never said he was freezing. He never even shivered and to her amazement and envy, he still slept without a blanket over him, just the one blow him to shield him from the dirt on the ground.

In the evening of the sixteenth day, they finally saw Zhongyang City loom in the distance. Seeing the buildings brought a spring into everyone's step and without a command from the old sheep, the steersmen urged the beasts on to go faster. Two hours later, they passed the gates to the city, finally off the dirt tracks and on solid ground.

The old sheep led them into the depot where his wagons would be unloaded and paid the rhino guards for their services, who quickly departed to the nearest inn to get something to eat and lots of beer. Po and Tigress also bid their goodbyes, thanking him for the ride while the sheep thanked them for the protection they had given them.

"So, Ti, how about we look for an inn, get something to eat and each rent a room so we can sleep in a real bed, at least for one night." Po suggested.

"I would like that very much." she nodded and followed him.

The first six inns they entered had no lodgings left, thanks to the end of harvesting season and the apparently early onset of winter. The town was packed with traders and seasonal workers coming home from farms in the countryside, clogging the streets and rooms. Tigress and Po entered one of the last inns they hadn't yet visited, moving towards the barkeep, an old pig with scars etching his face.

"Excuse me, do you have two rooms available?" Po asked.

"Only one." the pig grunted and spit into a bucket, causing both Po and Tigress to look at each other but none of the other guests even blinked an eye, so it was probably something the pig did regularly.

"Damn." Po sighed. "Thanks anyway, but..."

"We'll take it." Tigress interrupted, causing Po to look at her shocked as she paid for the night and some food for dinner to be brought up to them.

"Ti, are you sure about this?" Po asked as they walked up the stairs.

"Po, I am wet, I am tired and hungry. I don't have the desire to either argue or keep looking for a place with two rooms. We're both adults and we should be able to share a room for a night."

"Right." Po nodded. "I'll sleep on the floor."

"Suit yourself." Tigress shrugged and entered their room, the last one in the hallway.

The room itself was not very big but to Tigress' delight, it had a fireplace. A spacious bed was placed half a zhang away from the fireplace, though while it was designed for two to sleep in, the makers obviously didn't envision a panda. She looked at it and while she and any of the other masters could easily sleep in the bed and have room between them, Po's massive frame would easily spill over the middle as soon as he moved.

A divider on the other side of the room invited Tigress to change, making her pull it out and take off her clothes, the wet pants and vest first, followed by the bindings. Po saw how her clothes flew over the divider and quickly looked away to prevent himself from getting some seriously inappropriate thoughts.

He was saved by the proverbial bell, a knocking on their door snapping him out of it. He opened it and saw the old pig, holding a stack of firewood and grunting a promise that the food would be up soon as well. Po sniffed the air and smelt the stew that was cooking downstairs. His stomach rumbled in protest, not having gotten any sustenance since lunch and he put the pieces of wood into the fireplace, lighting them with a flint to let the warmth spread through the room.

"Oh good, now I can dry my clothes." Tigress announced her arrival from behind the divider.

"Yeah, you can..." Po started but stopped when he looked at his fellow master.

He had to do a double-take when he saw Tigress walking towards the fireplace with her wet clothes, wearing her robe. Since when was she so shapely? As Tigress was hanging up her clothes, she noticed Po staring at her.

"Anything wrong?" she wanted to know. "Is my robe dirty?"

"No. No no no." he quickly shook his head, giving out an embarrassed chuckle and was again saved by a knocking.

"Your food." a female pig said and held out a tray with two covered bowls.

"Thank you very much." Po replied and gave her a coin as tip. "Dinner is served."

"What are we having?" Tigress asked, finishing hanging up her clothes close to the fireplace.

"Stew." Po said and sniffed it. "Smells delicious."

"Then lets eat and then go to bed. Tomorrow, we need to find out if a caravan travels to Nan City."

"I'll let you have the bed and sleep on the floor." Po offered and began to eat. "Mh, not bad."

"Nonsense." Tigress shook her head. "Even I have noticed how uneven the floor is. I think we can survive one night sleeping in the same bed."

"If you say so." Po chuckled and they finished their dinner in silence, Tigress placing the tray on the floor in the hallway, so the pig could take it away later.

"Po, can I ask you something?" Tigress began when they got ready for bed.

"Sure, go ahead." Po nodded.

"Why do you always wear those patched up pants?"

"Because those are the only ones I can afford." Po told her.

"I don't understand."

"Ti, to use the words you used when we met, I'm a big fat panda." he said, making her feel guilty at her past behavior. "There aren't any stores anywhere that sell pants that fit me. The only way I can get fitting pants if I have them tailored and that simply costs too much. That's why I buy several regular shorts and stitch them together. And I'm clumsy of course, so I need to patch them rather frequently."

"I'm surprised you are still in one piece, given how often you fell down the thousand stairs." Tigress chuckled.

"Yeah, stairs, my nemesis." Po laughed along. "Well, I am pretty robust, am I?"

"That you are." she chuckled and got into bed, choosing the right side.

Po got into the left side, turning to the left as well so he wouldn't be tempted to stare at Tigress. Here he was, in bed with his idol and the most awesome Kung Fu master in all of China who suddenly looked a lot more feminine than she already did. He needed to stop this imagining of him and her together, like it would or even could ever happen. She was a sophisticated and hardcore master while he was a clumsy, fat panda. Not really a good combination.

He closed his eyes and the warmth of the room quickly lulled him to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Tigress found herself in Po's arms, her back pressed against his chest and his arm around her waist. She noticed that she had rolled into his embrace, since he was still on his side, just facing the other direction then the one he had fallen asleep in. Po was still sleeping soundly, something Tigress was very thankful for, since it saved her from some incessant teasing. She gingerly left his embrace, feeling cold immediately and quickly changed into her regular clothes behind the divider before moving towards the sleeping panda.

"Po, wake up." Tigress shook him awake.

"I'm awake. I'm awake." he yawned and rolled off the bed.

One look at his friend told him that whatever had happened last night to her curves was gone again. Tigress looked like the regular Tigress again, pants and vest on and no visible bulges under them. They went downstairs and had a healthy breakfast, paying a few more coins of their measly budget before heading out in the cool morning air. Tigress wrapped the robe tighter around herself to keep out the chill breeze hitting her. They walked to the trade district to find out if a caravan was leaving to Nan City in the near future.

"Excuse me?" Po asked an elderly rabbit who was walking around with a ledger.

"Yes?" the rabbit returned.

"Is there a caravan leaving for Nan City today or tomorrow?"

"No, there won't be any caravans leaving for Nan City for the entire winter. But one left yesterday. If you hurry, you can catch up to it. But you might have some trouble, it's a fast one."

"Lets go, Po." Tigress said and pulled him away.

"Thanks for the info." Po managed before he was out of earshot. "Tigress, are you seriously thinking we can catch a fast convoy?"

"If you stop talking and run, yes."

And Po and Tigress ran. Stopping for fifteen minutes every four hours to catch their breath, they ate up the distance and after twelve hours, they noticed fresh tracks on the ground that surely came from their caravan. Tigress called a halt for the night and Po collapsed into a heap of exhausted flesh, breathing hard and not even able to get up to eat.

Tigress got a fire going and grabbed three of Po's shrunken dumplings and some of her tofu, adding water to the dumplings and watching them grow, fascinated at the technique of the older panda to make them like that. She handed Po two of the dumplings and he quickly ate the first before taking his time with the second while she ate her tofu and dumpling as well. Before she could even ask Po how he felt, she noticed that he had fallen asleep.

The next morning, Tigress roused Po early and with a grumble, he followed her as she set off at another run. It took the better part of the day, with Po complaining all the time about the running but in the evening, they caught the caravan and convinced the owner of their identity, getting another guard job for free transportation. Po immediately took advantage of that and cooked a meal for everyone with their ingredients before falling down on his cot and falling asleep immediately. Tigress joined him soon after, sleeping off the exertion of the past two days.

"Where are you headed?" the caravan leader, a middle-aged but spry bunny, asked them.

"Nan City and from there to Xinan." Po replied, causing the others surrounding them to stop and look at them shocked. "What?"

"Xinan has become very dangerous." the bunny replied. "The tigers have gotten agitated in recent months. Skirmishes between them have increased and raids against Xinan as well. Surrounding hamlets and villages have been destroyed and the inhabitants either killed or scattered."

"How do you know all this?" Tigress wanted to know.

"My cousin is bookkeeper in a mercenary company. They have been hired by the government of Xinan to protect the city. And he told me that they aren't the only company there."

"Why isn't the military doing something?" Po asked.

"From what I heard, they are bringing forces closer to Xinan but the onset of winter makes troop movements difficult. Xinan can't support a large force and the troops can't forage."

"Makes sense." Po nodded. "But it doesn't change anything. Hopefully we can find out what we need in Xinan itself."

"Po, why are you so adamant of going there?" Tigress asked.

"Trust me, it's important." Po replied and his countenance made her believe him, though she was still dying to know why.

From the third day onward, Tigress did her nightly patrols again, ranging farther out to look for dangers, which pleased the guards to no end, since it gave them time to prepare for attacks. But luckily for them, the entire trip was calm as the windless sea, the only thing of note happening being another caravan going the other direction. And after ten days, they entered Nan City, where they stocked up on necessities and checked into a room, wordlessly deciding to share a room again to save money. At least that's what Tigress told herself.

The other reason was still unthinkable.

* * *

 **Stopping point ^^**

 **Review please :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alienheart1915: It's a form of willful denial on her part ;)**

 **Random Reviewer 1: Thanks for the plaudit. I'm an occasional proof-reader but even I make mistakes sometimes ^^. Whenever I read stories where the author made lots of mistakes, I cringe inside. I have read one story that was, in terms of storytelling, amazing but I couldn't finish it because the grammar was atrocious. Missing words, wrong spelling, nonexistent punctuation. What was even more crazy, the author was a native English speaker (at least according to his profile page)**

 **And to your question: What do you mean? Are you asking me if Tigress will have an injury induced memory come to the fore, like Po did in KFP 2?**

 **But enough of this, on with the story :D**

 **By the way, the rank Zhong Xiao is the equivalence to a Lieutenant Colonel. Shang Wei is a Captain.**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

"Good morning, Tigress." she heard Po chuckle as she woke up, stretching her legs and keeping her eyes closed. "Slept well?"

"Yes, very." Tigress replied, purring from the feeling of the extremely comfortable bedding she was on.

"I had no idea you could purr." Po chuckled again. "But I really need to relieve myself so please, could you get up?"

"No, it's so comfortable." she whined. "Go pee and let me rest some more."

"Tigress, open your eyes." Po said.

With a grumble, she opened her eyes and turned her head, coming face to face with two jade green orbs that looked at her with such emotion, that she was almost taken aback from their ferocity. She could do nothing but stare back, feeling herself drown in his eyes and her body was moving forward on its own, closing the distance between their faces until she realized that she was lying spreadeagled on Po, her arms and legs stretched out on his sides.

"What the...?" she shrieked and jumped up. "I'm sorry Po."

"I'm not. It was very comfortable." he grinned and got up. "But I really need to pee now."

She watched him leave the room and walked over to the water bowl, splashing cold water over her face to calm down. She felt a tingling all over her, wondering what was going on. Granted, waking up on top of someone else was a new experience but the last thing she remembered before going to sleep was her turning away from Po, a lot of room between them on that bed. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to share a room again.

"Okay, I'm ready to go." Po said upon his return. "Or, we could... you know, go back to bed."

"Shut it, Po." Tigress growled but smiled behind her paw. "As soon as I used the restroom too we can go." she replied and hurried into the other room.

"I'll wait downstairs with our backpacks." he called after her.

Po hummed a tune as he skipped downstairs. It wasn't just everyday he woke up with the woman of his dreams on top of him, snuggling into his chest while sleeping. If nature hadn't called, he'd probably have watched her sleep for hours more until she woke up by herself. Her face, which was usually so stern and unemotional during the day apart from the few times he made her smile was relaxed and open during sleep, a welcome change in the woman he had idolized since he was a teen. Maybe he should try to woo her but even though she had opened up a bit since their adventure in Gongmen City, he doubted that she would ever be romantically interested in him.

"I'm ready." Tigress startled him out of his thoughts and took her pack from him.

They bought a breakfast and ate it on the way to the town center. Even though the bunny from the caravan they arrived with told them that nobody would travel to Xinan, they decided to try anyway. Upon their arrival, they read the bulletin board but no caravans would leave for Xinan in the near future, proving the bunny right.

"It seems we're walking on our own." Po sighed and moved towards the western gate.

"Seems so." Tigress nodded and followed.

"Hail, Dragon Warrior!" someone shouted from behind them, making them both turn around.

"Yes?" Po asked the rhino who ran up to him.

"Our commander would like the honor of meeting you."

"Your commander?" Po wondered.

"Yes." the rhino nodded. "If you please follow me."

"Why not?" Po shrugged and both followed the rhino towards a walled barracks area.

"It really is you." a diminutive looking boar came running up to them, the only sign of his rank some epaulets on his shoulders.

"Do I know you?" Po asked.

"No, no." the boar shook his head. "But I have heard so much about you and when I learned that you were here in Nan City, I just had to meet you before my unit headed out. But where are my manners. My name is Borus Mero, I'm the Zhong Xiao of this battalion."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Po." Po greeted back and shook the boar's paw. "And this is the awesome Master Tigress."

"Ah, I heard so much about you too, Master Tigress." the boar nodded and bowed to her, Tigress bowing back.

"Listen, can you tell us about the situation in the west? Me and Master Tigress are on our way to Xinan."

"Oh, that's currently dangerous territory." the boar nodded. "The tigers are in upheaval but nobody knows why. They have attacked and destroyed villages around Xinan and attacked the town itself several times."

"We still have to go there." Po said. "Any advice on how to get there safely?"

"Sure. You could join our battalion until we reach our new forward base. It's a four day march, from then you need about three more days to reach Xinan, if the road remains open." the boar replied. "But you're on your own in that."

"Why would the road be closed?" Tigress wanted to know.

"Because of the winter. It's very strange this year, very early and massive amounts of snow which is unusual for this area."

"Aren't we supposed to be reaching a jungle?" Po asked.

"Only beyond Xinan. Before that, it's deep and thick forests."

"So, if we have to go beyond Xinan, we won't need to worry about winter?"

"This year, everything seems to be possible. One of the civilians who came from Xinan two days ago told us that it was snowing even over the jungle."

"But jungles don't usually grow in cold climates." Tigress argued.

"I know." Mero sighed. "The weather is crazy this year. Though if it's a natural phenomenon or something unnatural, I can't say. I do hope it's the first possibility."

"Why?" Po asked.

"Po, seriously?" Tigress interrupted before the boar could say anything. "Someone able to control weather? That's the last thing we need right now."

"Okay, I see." Po conceded the point. "When do you move out?"

"In two hours." the boar said. "We welcome you to march with us. We will share our food with you if you share the stories of your adventures."

"That sounds fair." Po nodded. "Lets go then."

* * *

The trip was, as expected when traveling with a battalion of hardened rhino- and boar soldiers, uneventful. Po had proven his talent as a storyteller, regaling the commander of the unit and the closest soldiers with tales of their adventures and he had shone the brightest light on Tigress, making his role secondary, which was quite a departure from his early days as the Dragon Warrior.

On their first evening, they had been handed the military rations made by the units cooks and Tigress had almost choked at the horrible taste. Po, in his habitual manner, had voiced his displeasure and taken over the role as cook, using the military provisions to cook a dinner that every soldier wanted seconds of until every pot and pan had been empty.

From then on, Po had been appointed the units chief cook, a task he had relished. Tigress had watched in awe while he bustled in the makeshift kitchen, the tent canvas covering him from the gently falling snow while he ran to and fro, mixing ingredients and cooking them in the giant cauldrons that had to feed the almost five hundred soldiers, some of whom ate a lot.

Yet, it took him only an hour each evening to make the dinner. Tigress also ate some of her tofu, the military provision not so much to her liking but Po took special care to make them palatable for her, for which she was grateful. So far on this trip, they had massive luck when it came to the transportation issue, since they always saved their own food and could rely on that of someone else.

"Dragon Warrior..." Mero started.

"Call me Po." Po interrupted.

"Oh, I can't do that. But I have to ask. Where did you learn to cook like that?"

"My dad owns a noodle restaurant. I learned everything from him." Po smiled, eating some of his noodles.

"Master of Kung Fu and Master of the kitchen. The total package." one of the rhino soldiers boomed, causing the others to laugh.

"Can I ask something?" Tigress spoke up.

"Certainly, Master Tigress." the boar colonel nodded.

"What would happen if the tiger tribes were to unite?"

"Then we would have a very tough situation on our hands." the boar replied. "If the tribes on the Chinese side were to unite, we should be able to keep them in check. But we really don't know how many tribes there are on the other side of the border. If they were to unite with the ones on our side of the border... lets just say we could have a great war on our hands."

"Are there that many tribes?" Po asked.

"Nobody really knows. Thanks to their constant internecine warfare, tribes get swallowed by others, sometimes a tribe experiences a civil strife and splits in two, forming two separate tribes and estimates from collected scout reports over the years say that their could be up to a hundred different tribes beyond the border."

"How many tigers for each tribe?" Tigress asked.

"Between five hundred and a thousand. Some are larger, some are smaller."

"That would mean between fifty- and a hundred thousand tigers. If even half of them are warriors..." Tigress said shocked.

"Correct. A massive force if it were united." Mero nodded.

"How many of our troops are stationed at the border?" Po inquired.

"I can't say, my rank isn't high enough. But nowhere near those numbers and amassing them would take months." the boar replied.

"What's the worst case scenario?" Tigress asked.

"A leader arises that manages to first unites and then hold the tribes together, creating a united force. As they are now, the tigers might be a danger close to the border but nothing major."

"Except they are burning down villages and killing their inhabitants." Po threw in.

"Right. The reason for that is what we intend to find out when spring begins and we can move more freely." the boar said. "Well, I'm ordering general rest now, we rise at daybreak."

"Good night." Po waved at him and retreated to the tent they had been given.

As they got into their tent and under the blankets, Tigress wondered why she hadn't even demanded her own tent when they had been given one for the both of them.

* * *

"Welcome, Zhong Xiao Mero." a rhino greeted the boar with a salute after they had passed the gate to the palisade enclosed encampment. "As ordered by high command, the base is now fully operational and able to hold two full battalions if necessary."

"Shang Wei Hurun." Mero saluted back. "Your company is hereby relieved. You are ordered to return to Nan City for rest and recuperation."

"At your command." Hurun nodded and turned around, shouting commands to his already waiting company.

"One moment, Shang Wei." Po stopped the rhino. "Me and Master Tigress need to get to Xinan. Zhong Xiao Mero mentioned that the roads might be impassable due to the weather. Do you have any news for us?"

"Only bad news, I'm afraid." Hurun replied. "The road is completely blocked. This winter is very strange. Snow is falling denser than ever, even in the jungle and the geology of the region combined with the prevailing winds caused huge snow drifts to collect on the road. You might be faster if you move through the forest itself."

"Many thanks." Po nodded.

Po and Tigress stepped aside, letting the troops march past, one company leaving the camp while an entire battalion entered it, the soldiers of the five companies piling into the wooden barracks buildings that had seemingly been constructed recently. Tigress looked back at the retreating force, seeing the gear on the wagons behind them, consisting mostly of hammers, shovels, saws and anything else needed by a construction unit.

"So, what do we do now?" Tigress asked Po.

"I think we should stay here tonight and tomorrow morning we leave for Xinan. That way we can still save on our provisions and we both have a real bed to sleep on before we have to sleep on snow-filled ground." Po replied.

"Agreed." Tigress nodded, seeing the logic in that, even though she would have preferred not to waste any more time.

But seeing that the sky was already darkening, both from menacing looking clouds and the advanced hours, she surrendered to the fact that today was basically over. She followed Po into the mess hall, where the panda hurried into the kitchen, giggling like a little child getting to play with his favorite toys.

She watched in awe as Po began to move around the place. The kitchen staff, used to him doing the cooking, stepped mostly aside and let him work, only helping with mundane stuff or if he told them what to do, like peeling potatoes or cutting apart vegetables. It looked as if he was doing four things at once, mixing ingredients while stirring three pots at the same time and he never tired, humming to himself which told of content.

Tigress realized that this is what Po loved to do apart from Kung Fu. Seeing how he acted in the kitchen, not just here but also at the Jade Palace, it was clear that this wasn't work for him but something he liked doing, unlike training or going up stairs. She remembered the old saying 'If you love what you are doing, you never work a day in your life' and it was true.

Tigress herself loved to train and unlike the others, she never tired of it. She might get tired in body at some point but her spirit always wanted to do more, always wanted to improve herself. Before Po came into her life, all her training had been geared to her becoming the Dragon Warrior, a title she wanted to hold to make her master and father proud but seeing Po, she realized that there was more to being the Dragon Warrior.

She knew that she would never be able to show the kind of compassion he expressed on a regular basis. Her countenance was too rigid, too fierce. Over a period of twenty years, she had numbed her paws so she wouldn't feel pain but back then, she hadn't bothered to realize that not feeling pain also meant not feeling anything else.

Whereas Po and all the other masters, all other people in fact, could run their hands, wings or tails through a batch of high grass and feel each blade of grass caress their palms, she felt nothing. When people hugged others and felt their fur or skin against their palms, Tigress felt nothing. It had been very clear during their adventure in Gongmen City, when she had hugged Po and in the panda village as well. While she had felt his body against hers, her palms were dead to feelings.

Frustrated, she slapped her paw against the door frame she was leaning against, cursing under her breath when she felt a wooden splinter enter it. As she pulled it out, she startled when realizing that she actually felt the splinter entering her skin, belying her entire internal monologue from a few seconds ago about not feeling anything. Looking at her paw, she wondered why it had suddenly changed, why she could suddenly feel something again.

"Dinner is ready." Po announced and the cooking staff rung the bell, signaling for the soldiers to come in.

Tigress was shocked when she heard him announce that because it meant that she had watched him cook for over an hour while reminiscing about her past. Taking a bowl with food from him, she sat down at a table where she was soon joined by Po, watching as the soldiers piled in and got their food from the kitchen staff.

As they ate, a steady procession of rhinos and boars entered and left the building, some sitting down to eat, others taking it with them to eat outside while sitting around one of the multitude of fireplaces. Soon, both Po and Tigress had finished eating, Po having gotten a second helping, and they left the mess hall to find a place to sleep.

"Dragon Warrior. Master Tigress." a pig got their attention, which Tigress remembered being a member of of the non-fighting attendance unit.

"Yes?" Po asked.

"We reserved two rooms for you in the officers building."

"Thank you very much." Po nodded and both followed the pig into a large wooden building.

Inside was a large rotund room with a map table in the middle. The pig led them through a side door and they entered the living quarters, stars on the door indicating what rank the occupant had. After reaching the last two rooms, both sporting five stars each, indicating that they were reserved for very high ranks, the pig bowed and left them alone.

"Good night, Tigress." Po smiled at her and entered the leftmost room, leaving her the right.

She entered it and took a deep breath. The room smelled new, never having had an occupant before, the bed was made and curtains adorned the window while a sliding door led to an en suite bathroom. Tigress unclasped her backpack and headed into the bathroom to wash herself. After taking off her robe, pants and vest, she untied the straps that covered her female parts and kept her breasts tight to her body.

Stretching backwards, she enjoyed the momentary freedom before putting her paws into the water bowl and using it to wash her face and then the rest of her body. Feeling marginally refreshed but at least clean, she left her clothes hanging in the bathroom to air out and returned to her room. After putting on a new robe to use as a nightgown, she sat down on the bed, taking another deep breath. She felt terribly alone after spending pretty much every evening the last few weeks with either Po or a bunch of others. She also still wanted to know why he was so adamant of reaching tiger country and seeing it as a good opportunity, she went over to his room.

After stepping into Po's room, she didn't see him anywhere but suddenly the sliding door to his bathroom opened and the panda stepped out, a towel pressed to his face to dry it off. Her entire body froze when she realized that he was completely naked and it took all her strength and willpower to prevent the purr she felt coming up.

"AH!" Po shrieked, holding the towel over his lower body and turning red. "Tigress? What are you doing here?"

"I... uh..." she tried to remember the reason she had to come over. "It can wait. Good night Po."

"Night, Tigress." Po returned, clearly confused, as Tigress fled the room.

Slamming her door shut, she leaned against it, taking several deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She had expected to find Po either sleeping or eating, or maybe even meditating but the last thing she had expected was him coming out of the bathroom naked, gloriously if accidentally flouting his pride to her. Closing her eyes, then opening them again, she tried every meditative technique she knew to get that image out of her head, otherwise she might have trouble sleeping.

Lying down, she began twisting and turning in her attempt to fall asleep. Something was missing tonight but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly. She noticed that snow had begun falling outside and the wind had picked up, signs that didn't bode well for the continuation of their trip the next day. And every time she was about to fall asleep, the image of naked Po returned to her mind, making her wake up again and her body tingle all over. Nobody she ever saw naked, usually accidentally during her time at the orphanage could hold a candle to her best friend.

Then again, he was a bear after all.

* * *

"What the hell?" Tigress bolted upright in her bed after finally having fallen asleep.

She noticed the sounds coming from the outside, the wind howling through the alleys between the building, their shape creating a whistling that sounded like the shriek of a banshee. Snow was hitting her window shutters, rattling them against the frame. Tigress sighed at the sound, knowing what difficulties they would face when they journeyed on. She just hoped that the trees would block out most of the wind, otherwise they might easily get lost in the forest. Deciding that it was moot to dwell too much, she laid back down and closed her eyes.

"Tigress?" Po's voice woke her up. "Tigress, you awake?"

"Yes Po, come in." she groaned and got up, discarding her robe to freshen up in the bathroom.

"Uh..." Po stood there, eyes wide at the sight of his best friend taking her robe off in front of him to present herself in all her glorious nakedness before disappearing into her bathroom. "I was already inside." he added in a whisper.

Tigress used some of the cold water to wake up properly and got dressed again, putting the straps back on first and then her pants, vest and robe. Flattening the fur on her head, she returned to the other room and found Po fidgeting, hopping from one foot to the other, clearly nervous.

"Po, something wrong?" she asked.

"Uh, no. Nothing." he chuckled and looked away. "We should have some breakfast before moving out."

"Yeah." she agreed. "By the way, did you notice the storm last night?"

"No, must have slept through it." he shrugged. "Lets go."

Outside the building, teams of soldiers were busy shoveling snow, creating lanes to walk between the buildings and the main gate. Both noticed the mountains of snow outside where the soldiers were piling it up. After entering the mess hall, Po and Tigress got some bean buns and dumplings the kitchen staff had prepared, Tigress' mouth turning into a frown when she tasted them.

"Po, you ruined my taste buds." she grumbled.

"What?"

"That stuff tastes horrible now. I'm used to your cooking or that of your father." she pointed out. "And it looks like our erstwhile comrades share my view."

"Ha ha, you might be right." he laughed and watched the other soldiers frown in almost disgust as they ate their food.

Regardless, they both ate a healthy amount of breakfast in an unspoken agreement to load up on nutrients before heading out since making food would be hard outside. Luckily, they still had their dumplings that could be enlarged with water and snow meant lots of that plus her tofu, which was still nestled in her backpack. After finishing eating, they headed into the command center where they found the boar commander of the unit.

"Zhong Xiao Mero." Po got the boars attention. "This is where we say our goodbyes."

"You are leaving already?"

"Yes, we can't delay any longer. We should try to get to Xinan until the region becomes completely impassable." Po nodded.

"Dragon Warrior, Master Tigress, it has been an honor to meet you." Mero shook their paws before saluting, the entire attending staff doing the same.

"Likewise." Po returned and bowed to everyone present.

As they left the building, they found, to their surprise, the way to the main gate filled with rhinos and boars on each side, all saluting the pair as they walked towards the exit, both in awe at the display. Every pair of soldiers they passed lowered their hand from the salute until the last hands were down and they were at the threshold to the outside.

"Wow." Po breathed. "That was one great exit."

"It was." Tigress agreed and both bowed to the assembled soldiers. "Goes to show how much the Dragon Warrior means to China."

"You really think so?"

"Po." Tigress chuckled. "When we were in the command center, have you noticed the wooden figurines on the strategic table?"

"Yeah, what about them?" he nodded as they walked towards the tree line.

"Those figurines depict units. Companies, battalions, regiments, brigades and so on."

"I'm following so far."

"I heard that the Dragon Warrior has its own figurine on the strategic table in the Emperor's palace."

"What? Are you serious?" Po asked shocked. "You're kidding me."

"That's what I heard, I don't know if it's actually true." Tigress shrugged as they reached the tree line.

For a while, they continued their idle chit chat which soon stopped when the trip became more and more difficult. Using their compass, they headed southwest towards Xinan, the density of the forest combined with the snow making progress difficult. Also, since tigress was sweating from the laborious trek and the temperatures were so low, the cooling effect was starting to get to her.

They spent the first night under a giant oak, Po having pushed most of the snow aside so Tigress wouldn't have to lie on it. He managed to light a small fire, creating at least some warmth and they used the melted snow to enlarge their dumplings, Po eating six of them while Tigress ate four and some of her tofu.

If Tigress' nose hadn't been so cold and her sense of smell thereby hampered, she might have noticed the two pairs of desperate and hungry eyes watching them from afar.

Po took the first watch and Tigress the second and the night passed without incident. The next day, they made good ground since it had stopped snowing and Tigress, for the first time, noticed the complete absence of sounds in the forest. Usually, birds would sing and smaller feral creatures would scamper from tree to tree but here and now, nothing even stirred. It was as if someone had emptied it out.

The farther southwest they went, the less leafs were on the trees. Tigress looked at the scenery, the thick white layer of snow on each branch, wondering what could have caused this winter in this region of China. Usually, that part was wet and warm, the fact that a jungle was a few days march away proof of that. She hoped that it really was just a weather phenomenon and not a villain doing it.

After they had lunch, snow began to fall again. Tigress groaned at the feeling of snowflakes hitting her fur, at least those parts not covered by her robe while she looked in wonder at Po who walked through the snow without a care in the world, still dressed in nothing but his patched up pants. Then again, she had watched him swim through ice cold water in the panda village, so it wasn't really a surprise that he didn't feel the cold. She took one of her blankets out of her backpack and used it as a parka to prevent her robe getting wet from the snow.

Unsurprisingly, their progress got slower as the falling snow impeded their march and without the compass they got from the military, they would have probably already begun moving in circles. Po steadily moved forward, his bulk and short legs creating a deep grove in the snow that Tigress used to walk in. Even unknowingly, he helped her.

"Well, I think we should try to get some rest." Tigress sighed after several more hours and the sky going darker than the snow clouds already made it, feeling the cold starting to seep into her bones through her robe and vest. She handed Po her blanket and her backpack while she looked around for firewood.

"I agree, we..." Po started, the blanket and her backpack on his arms in front of him, but he suddenly fell forward, his eyes closed.

"Po, I didn't mean fall asleep where you stand." Tigress admonished with a chuckle until she noticed the dart sticking out of his neck, causing her to immediately move to stand over Po and get into a fighting stance. "What the...?"

Anything else she wanted to say died in her throat when she felt a stinging pain in her own neck. She grabbed up and felt the dart that had hit her but before she could pull it out, the darkness rushed in and she fell forward into the snow.

* * *

 **And this chapter is done here. Something to keep you on your toes :D**

 **Review please :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Usually, I would have written a chapter of one of my other stories but today we had a work Saturday and it was remarkably slow, so I used some of my time to hammer a few sentences down ^^**

 **Random Reviewer 1: I do that because I too don't like if someone describes a trip where nothing happens in minute detail just to fill the story with another chapter.**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

Tigress slowly opened her eyes, grogginess hampering her efforts. Her limbs felt laden from whatever substance had been shot into her and another thing she noticed that she was spread over Po's body, who also began stirring. She rolled off him, into the snow and feeling the cold of the white winter powder seeping into her robe. At least she was still wearing her robe. And at least they were still in the forest and not tied up in some cell.

"Po." she shook him fully away, causing the big panda to jump up and get into a fighting stance.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I think we were drugged." she replied, looking around. "And robbed."

"Ah man, my pack. Our food." Po whined.

"I think we can safely say that we weren't knocked out by tigers, otherwise they would have either killed us or taken us with them." Tigress groaned, trying to get some feeling back into her limbs. "Wonder who else is roaming these forests."

"Whoever it is, they were weak and hungry." Po observed.

"How do you figure?"

"Well, they didn't took us but our packs with our stuff. Except your pack and blanket." Po pointed out.

"Why wouldn't they take my pack and blanket?"

"Because they were partially under me. And apparently, whoever knocked us out was incapable of moving me."

"Well, you are pretty..."

"Fat?" Po grinned.

"Heavy." she poked out her tongue, surprising Po with her current playfulness.

"You are kinda lighthearted given the fact that we have no money, no food and only one blanket."

"If they didn't take my pack, we should have some food left." Tigress pointed to her pack on the ground.

"You don't have food, you have soybean curd." Po crunched his face in disgust and rummaged inside her pack.

"Hey, tofu is delicious." she returned.

"I reject that assertion." Po poked out his tongue to her. "But it seems that they still managed to pull most of your tofu out of the pack. There's only a small amount left. And what's even worse, they took the compass too."

"Oh damn." she cursed. "Now we need to reach Xinan and hope that someone there can help us. Without money, we can't buy replacement provisions."

"We should get moving." Po said. "Should we try to reach Xinan or should we go back to the military camp?"

"I think we're closer to Xinan."

"Alright. But we should hurry, you're freezing." Po saw her shivering body.

Hearing it mentioned, Tigress pulled her robe tighter over her body. Po handed her the blanket but unfortunately, it was pretty damp from him pressing it into the snow for who knows how long so she used her strength to press the moisture out of it and put it into her backpack. Looking at Po, walking again in just his pants without any care, she growled at his inability to not feel cold and a part of her wished to be in his embrace, knowing the warmth he exuded.

Looking at the sky, she noticed that they must have been out of it for the entire night, the light rising from the east and the western sky filled with residual darkness. With the sun, it would be easy to determine their direction but the low hanging and still menacing looking snow clouds put the kibosh on that one.

As if on cue, it began snowing again, first very small flakes which after two hours were almost as big as her thumbnail wide. Her feet sank deeper and deeper into the snow, making her shiver even more since she didn't have appropriate shoes for this particular climate. For several hours, they followed a route decided on by Tigress, since she had a better sense of direction than Po.

Unfortunately, a strong wind build up over the afternoon. Both ate the remaining tofu, Tigress feeling sorry for her big panda, who was used to eat more than a handful of something he hated but now they were completely out of food. Po deliberately sat down upwind of Tigress to use his bulk to shield her from it as much as he could, something she was very grateful for.

The wind itself seemed to add to the cold, creating a low temperature that Tigress had never felt before, not once in any of the winters in the valley of peace nor when she was trudging through the snow to the panda village. It reminded her of stories she heard as a kid in the orphanage about people who traveled far to the north of China, into a land of perpetual winter where they claimed that the wind was so strong and cold that it would flay the skin of an unprotected body.

Sitting here now, feeling the biting chill coming through her too thin clothes, she could believe the stories.

* * *

"Oh no." Tigress cursed suddenly.

"What?" Po asked. "We need to go on, we should find shelter at least and it's going to be dark soon."

"Po, look." she pointed to a very wide tree.

"What about it?"

"We passed that tree a while ago."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "What makes you think it's the same?"

"Come with me." she said and led him towards the tree. "Look down here, can you see these grooves?"

"Yeah." he hesitated. "Barely, they are snowed in."

"Po, you made them when we passed that tree." she sighed. "We have been moving in a circle."

"Damn." he cursed. "Stupid wind, stupid snow, stupid winter."

"Since we already were here, we know that there won't be any shelter to find around here." she growled, feeling her ire rise as well, the cold not helping.

"I think we should sleep up there." he pointed up the tree they were standing next to.

"What? Why?"

"Look at the top. It looks like a flat plateau with branches sticking out from the rim. Which means we can lie there and the wind gets at least broken up by the branches."

"Fine, you go first." she nodded and watched as he scampered up the tree, his bulk making it difficult and forcing her to push him further.

After Po had finally reached the top of the trunk, Tigress followed him up, taking off her backpack as soon as she was up and getting her blanket. She was severely cold, the freezing wind blowing strongly and buffeting the branches around them but as soon as she was next to Po, she felt the wind lessen in intensity, the branches around them breaking it up and once more proving Po right.

She watched the panda, who had cleaned the plateau of snow and who was now leaning back against a thick branch, using it like the backrest of a lounger and calmly breathing with his eyes closed. Tigress growled at the sight, her envy of his seeming inability to feel cold temperatures raising her ire even more while she was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

 _'Stupid panda. Why did he have to bring me here? I could be lying on my cot in my warm room back at the Jade Palace but where am I? Deep inside a forest, in a winter so severe nobody can remember a worse one without food or the appropriate clothing while that infuriating panda sits there without a care in the world.'_ she thought, her bad mood causing her to growl, even audible to Po, who opened his eyes.

"Tigress, are you okay?" he asked, but those four words from his mouth made her snap completely.

"Am I okay? AM I OKAY?" she shrieked. "No, I am not okay. I am cold, I am hungry and I don't know what we are doing here!"

"Come here." he said calmly and pulled her to his chest, hugging her, a hug she fought only for a few seconds before trying to envelop herself deeper into his warm fur.

"Why did you bring me here?" she wanted to know.

"I don't want to have to fight you or even kill you." Po told her, stroking her back.

"What?" she asked, lifting her head to look at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Oogway told me a vision he had."

"Oogway?" she wondered. "Oogway is dead."

"Yes and no." Po said. "He's in the spirit world. He sent my dad this universe mail that led to him visiting me. I met him in the spirit world after defeating Kai."

"And what did he tell you then and why did you wait so long to do something about it?" she asked accusingly.

"Oh no, no, no." he quickly interjected. "I met Oogway a second time. Remember when I showed you the inner peace technique under the peach tree?"

"Yes." she nodded, relaxing her body when she felt his body heat radiating out of him, making her tired.

"That evening, Shifu gave me some scrolls to read and learn but a peach blossom floated past me and landed on one of Oogway's scrolls. It described how to travel using the spirit world and I took it as a sign and visited him."

"You visited Oogway in the spirit world? How?" she asked shocked.

"I used the Wuxi Finger Hold on myself again." he shrugged. "Anyway, Oogway told me that you have become jealous of me and that spark could lead you onto a dark path. And he suggested that you finding inner peace could prevent that."

"Jealous?" Tigress asked.

"Yes." Po nodded.

"I'm not jealous. I'm not jealous! Of what? Of how you can make friends with everyone you meet while people tend to shun me? Of your superior Kung Fu skills? You being stronger than me? Your ability to master any technique, no matter how hard by just seeing it once or reading about it?" Tigress asked, getting progressively louder.

"Tigress..."

"Jealous of how you took the title of Dragon Warrior away from me, a title I trained to earn since I was a cub and Shifu adopted me? Jealous of..." she continued until she heard herself talking. "Damn, I am jealous." she broke down and started sobbing.

"It's okay." Po whispered, holding her tight while she shed tears she had kept inside her for a decade.

"But why did you bring me here of all places to achieve inner peace?" she asked after calming down.

"Because I achieved inner peace when I remembered why my parents abandoned me. I always thought they didn't want me and that's why they put me into that radish basket my adoptive dad found me in until I learned that my mother put me in there to protect me and then gave her life luring the wolves away from me."

"That's why we are here? To help me remember my parents?"

"Yes." Po nodded. "I'm hoping that knowing why they left you at the orphanage will help you find closure."

"But what if the reason is something really bad? What if they really didn't want me because they saw me as a disappointment?"

"Then you will still have closure. And remember, you have a family that loves you, even though we don't show it most of the time." he said, smiling at her, causing her to smile back.

"Thank you Po." she returned and, acting on a spur of the moment, kissed him gently on the cheek before snuggling back into his warm fur, surprising him with the action.

"You're welcome." he said, nuzzling into her neck. "Now sleep."

He pulled the blanket over her back and tucked it under his sides before putting his arms under the blanket to envelop her body with his arms. He heard Tigress take a contented breath before she fell asleep. He closed his eyes and quickly followed her into dreamland.

* * *

When Tigress woke up again, she was completely under the blanket, from head to toe, her body completely enveloped by the fabric. She noticed how she had folded her body and remembered Po hugging her to him to comfort her. She felt very comfortable, his body warming her and his arms holding her tight while he slept without caring for the cold.

While she would have loved to stay up here, she knew they needed to get going. She heard her stomach growl, reminding her of the lack of food and the combination of hunger and cold would make their travel even harder than it would already have been anyway.

"Po, wake up." she shook her panda awake, who slowly opened his eyes and yawned.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked, his stomach rumbling even louder than hers.

"A big bowl of nothing." she returned, extricating herself from him even though that meant going back to the cold.

"Aw, man." he whined. "I hope we find Xinan today, or any other type of shelter, otherwise we might be in real trouble."

Both climbed down the tree, at least Tigress did, since Po slipped and fell, hitting the ground with a thud. Cursing, he got up and both started moving in what they hoped was the correct direction. During the morning, the weather was surprisingly clear, no snow fell and only a very slight breeze was hitting them while unfortunately, it was still too cloudy to use the sun as a directional tool.

They moved for several hours, Tigress looking back regularly to make sure that their route was straight and didn't curve too much and if it did, she corrected it immediately. Suddenly, it began snowing again and the wind picked up as well, as if someone had flicked a switch, giving credence to her theory of someone using a device to control the weather, though why anyone wanted to create a hard winter was beyond her.

"I fell like we're being watched." he suddenly said, stopping in his tracks and causing her to almost bump into him.

"I can't see or hear anything in these conditions." she returned. "And my nose is too cold to smell."

"Still." he sighed. "It's a gut feeling. As if I'm measured up for dinner."

"Maybe it's the same people who robbed us?" she suggested, looking around.

"Why would they want to rob us again? It's not as if we have suddenly more food." Po replied, getting into a fighting stance. "I feel them come closer."

Suddenly, Tigress noticed dark shapes emerging from around them, as if they stepped out from behind a curtain, which was actually partially true, given how much it snowed. They noticed that the new arrivals were dressed in dull metallic armor, the coloring perfect for winter conditions and each one was carrying a weapon, from spears to swords and even some cleavers.

"Leave now or feel the thunder." Po threatened, while Tigress removed her cowl to get a better field of vision.

"A female!" one of their attackers growled.

"They are tigers!" Po exclaimed after they had come close enough to make their uncovered faces visible.

"Kill the big one, take the female alive and unharmed." one of the tigers commanded.

"PO!" Tigress shouted and jumped in front of him, swatting an arrow out of the air, making her wonder how it could fly true in wind like that.

"HIYAH!" Po shouted and punched the tree next to him, cracking the bark and making a big piece fly off it.

In a display of ability, he did a spinning kick and accelerated the makeshift projectile into the bow wielding attacker, who fell backwards when the bark hit his face with a crunch. With shouts and growls, the remaining tigers rushed them. Po and Tigress stood back to back, evading and blocking attacks that would hit the back of the other while dishing out useless punches that were stopped by the armor of their opponents.

As they fought, Po grabbed a spear of one of the tigers and used it like a staff, twirling it around and hitting tigers left and right, making some practically fly away from the force of the hits. Tigress punched and kicked who she could, trying to concentrate on their uncovered faces. Suddenly, a hard impact hit her head, making her fell forward.

"Tigress!" Po yelled and barreled into the tiger who was about to lift Tigress up, making the animal fly away and disappear with a yell. "Damn, a cliff."

"Po, we can't fight them. We're too weak." Tigress pointed out, moving backwards with Po until they were only a few paces away from the drop, the tigers surrounding them on the remaining sides. She looked down and could see tall trees rising from the ground but even then they didn't reach the edge of the cliff. A fall here would most likely be fatal.

"Tigress, close your eyes." Po said quietly, hoping none of the attackers would hear him and do the same.

"Why?" she asked but Po was already staring forward towards their attackers.

"GOLDEN LOTUS CLAP!" Po shouted, giving Tigress the chance to shut her eyes and shield them with her arm.

She noticed the loud bang that accompanied that technique and heard the howling of the tigers whose eyesight was now gone, at least for a while. Opening her eyes, she noticed at least half of their attackers flailing in panic, the other half still able to see so those had had the frame of mind to shield their eyes as well.

"Run!" Po shouted and grabbed her arm, pulling her along.

They ran along the sheer drop to their left, sprinting as fast as their legs could carry them, which meant Tigress had to hold back so she wouldn't leave Po behind. They could hear the tigers coming after them, the growling getting louder, even though they wore heavy armor but they had the advantage of not being hungry. Tigress stayed behind Po, who used his bulk to crash through underbrush and low hanging branches, clearing a path for them both.

"Tigress, I don't think..." Po started but his sentence ended in a yelp when the ground under his left foot suddenly broke, opening up to a shallow hole.

That alone wouldn't have been the problem but the shallow hole turned into a sloping canal when the snow covering it began moving towards the ravine like a small avalanche. Tigress hopped to the side to avoid it but saw Po stumble and trying to right himself again, failing miserably, since his forward momentum made it difficult for him. Distracted as he was, his right arm, which he had straightened to the side to regain his balance, hit a tree and caused him to fall. Tigress watched in horror as Po fell sideways and slid over the edge of the cliff.

"PO!" she shouted and skidded to a halt, hurrying to the cliff, seeing him dangle precariously on a branch of one of the tall trees, two zhang down. "Po, hang on!"

Tigress could hear their pursuers get closer, the stomping and growling growing ever louder and she looked around for something to use to pull Po back up. With some time and their gear, she could have fashioned something but in the current situation, nothing she could see was of any use. While she was watching helplessly as Po began to move, she noticed a slight vibration under her, wondering if the tigers were already that close but when she tried to move, the slab of snow and dirt she was perching on cracked and sharply dipped forward.

As for Po, he hung precariously on a thin branch sticking out of the tree. Looking down, he noticed no branches for at least three zhang, only a few thick ones close to the ground while there were a few thinner branches above him. As he tried to move closer to the trunk to use it to get down, he heard a crack and watched as Tigress' perch dipped and fell forward, taking her with it.

"TIGRESS!" he shouted and hopped to the end of the branch he was hanging on, sticking out his left arm as far as he could.

Tigress saw his outstretched arm, palm up and flung out her own, trying to reach it. Their paws connected and Po closed his with an iron grip, swinging Tigress around until their momentum was exhausted and both were hanging from the end of the branch, Po still holding Tigress.

"Hold on Tigress, I..." Po started but then, another crack made him stop.

Both looked at the point where the branch connected to the trunk, seeing the cracks appear and small pieces of bark fly away. Tigress tried to reach the trunk but her arms weren't long enough and Po couldn't hop to it fast enough and knew that trying to swing her would make the branch break even faster. He looked down at her and both looked into the others eyes, jade green meeting fiery orange.

Tigress saw the emotions in his gaze, his determination, his dedication. She also noticed affection and, if her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, love. But she also saw regret and got a feeling of dread when she realized what he was about to do, just for her.

"Po, no!" she tried to stop him but with a mighty effort and a scream, Po pulled her upwards and flung her above himself, high enough that she could grab onto one of the thinner branches at the top of the tree.

She tried desperately to prolong her tail as far down as possible so he could grab it but she heard the snapping of wood and looked down in horror, seeing the branch Po was hanging on break completely off the trunk. Po fell down, trying to claw against the bark but even his arms weren't long enough.

Tigress watched as he fell until his back hit one of the thick branches near the bottom. She heard him cry out in pain as his back was bent way too far and due to his weight, the branch also snapped after two seconds of bending. The short break of his fall made his body turn in midair and she cried out when she saw his head hitting another thick branch, the impact snapping it sideways with an audible crack, then he finally and mercifully hit the ground, a puff of powdered snow engulfing him while Po lay on his back, not moving.

Almost in tears from fear for her friend, she tried to move closer to the trunk to get her claws into the bark but before she could move enough, a loud snap announced the breaking of her own branch. With a startled scream, she felt gravity pull her down, no other impediment available to either stop or break her fall. She strained to reach the trunk but her arms were even shorter than Po's and the whole attempt was a dismal failure.

Looking down, she saw Po open his eyes, a pained expression on his face. She willed him to move out of the way but to her horror, she saw him wiggle and move directly into her path, his teeth clenched together. He must have been injured badly by the way he moved and his face contorted in agony but he wouldn't be stopped from his attempt to shield her from harm.

"Po, don't do it!" she tried to stop him but as soon as he was directly below her, his face turned serene and he closed his eyes.

Tigress landed on him legs first, hearing something break as her fall was stopped. She bounced off of him and into the snow, bouncing two more times until coming to a stop. She lay there for several seconds, trying to get her bearings and attempting to find out where she was hurt. She moved her arms and legs, feeling sore but nothing felt broken or torn.

"PO!" she shouted in shock, remembering the snapping sounds and hasted to his prone form, seeing him lying on his back, eyes closed. "Po, talk to me."

Po opened his eyes slowly and cried out in pain, spitting out blood which indicated an internal injury. She gently pressed against his ribs where her legs had hit him, causing another scream and she could feel the broken bones in his body. She pressed against his legs and even dug a claw into his skin without receiving a reaction. She fought back tears when thinking about him having suffered a spinal injury and getting paralyzed just to save her from harm.

"Ti... gress." Po whispered, his eyes half open before they closed again and he stopped breathing.

"Oh no. No, no, no!" she yelled and tried to feel his pulse, feeling none before putting her head on his chest to hear no heartbeat.

She put rhythmic pressure on his chest and breathed into his mouth to attempt to revive him but no matter how often she did it, no reaction came from his battered body. Tigress started crying, the thought of Po dying just to save her impossible to comprehend. She couldn't do this. She couldn't watch him die again and this time, there wasn't a peach tree sapling that could give its Chi to Po to bring him back to life. Tigress fell backwards into the snow, getting onto her knees and felt regret bubbling up inside her. So many missed opportunities and what ifs.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed and let her head fall back before giving out a pained roar of complete loss and regret.

At the top of the ravine, a group of male tigers heard the sound and took a step back, even their cold hearts stinging from hearing such a wail. But before their leader could order them to get down there to get the female, the entire group was knocked off their feet by an explosion of light that filled the ravine for a second, causing their entire world to go dark.

* * *

 **I'm really mean right now because this... is a cliffhanger :D**

 **Originally, I hadn't planned on a cliffhanger. But when I was writing this, a colleague of mine sneaked into my office and watched over my shoulder what I was doing. Then she made fun of me for writing Kung Fu Panda before she commented on the earlier chapters, thereby revealing that she reads them anyway.**

 **So, Christine, because you laughed, this cliffhanger is on you and especially for you :-P As for the other readers, I'm sorry but it's not my fault :D**

 **Review please :) (or I'll wait a few months to write the next chapter ^^)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, Christine apologized profusely and she promised me dinner. And for someone as me who venerates food, it's always a great way to get back into my good graces. ^^**

 **And thanks to it being another slow day, I even finished the chapter today :)**

 **That doesn't mean that you readers have to send me cookies now. Reviews are fine as well :D**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

Tigress looked at her paws and saw the golden glow emanating from them. A more thorough look at herself made her realize that her entire body was glowing as well and her eyes felt like they were on fire without the burning sensation. It looked to her like the time she and the pandas had released their Chi to help Po against Kai in the spirit realm.

Acting on impulse, she put her glowing palms on Po's body, feeling herself fall into him. She moved past his skin, his fat, his muscles until she saw his skeletal structure right in front of her eyes. The severed spine. The fractured disks in his neck. The broken ribs, two of which had pierced his right lung and another that had cut a tear into his heart.

Moving her incorporeal right hand like a scalpel, she lifted the rib out of his heart and, with two fingers, pinched the tear in his heart close and sealing it with her mind before wrapping her hand around the giant muscle and gently squeezing it rhythmically until she saw the heart start to beat on its own. Next, she did the same with the two ribs sticking into his lungs, fixing that tear as well.

Satisfied with the fixed damage to his internal organs, she moved to his spine, seeing the broken parts and sighing internally. Concentrating hard, she used both of her incorporeal hands to hold the spine together but was unable to lift the broken bits into place to repair the separation. Letting go of the lower part, she brought the bone splinters into place but as soon as she lifted the spine again, the bits sunk back to where they were.

Repeating her attempt multiple times, she despaired at her inability to heal her best friend, the man without she couldn't imagine a life anymore. Whimpering, she tried again but suddenly, a second consciousness touched her own, infusing her with renewed strength and trust. She let go of the splinters and lifted the lower spine back into place, seeing the splinters lift into the middle and fusing with the bone again, fixing the damage. Somehow she knew that Po had been helping her, even though he was the injured one.

Moving to his neck, she saw the torn ligaments and the cracked disks and fused the bone back together before reconnecting the ligaments. She felt bone tired, the effort of saving her friend in combination with the lack of food having a very detrimental effect on her mental strength. Finishing the repairs to his neck, she moved towards his ribs an began healing them but before she could finish the repairs, she felt herself fly out of his body and back to her own, where her eyes closed and she fell backwards into the snow, falling unconscious from exhaustion.

When she woke up again, she felt snow covering her, the weather having taken a turn for the worse while she was out of it. She lifted her head and got up, feeling as if she had run up the thousand steps a hundred times and circling the palace at high speed for ten hours straight. She stumbled towards Po, who was also covered in a thick layer of fresh snow, except for his face where his steady breaths were keeping it away.

Tigress shivered hard, unable to stop when the cold manifested itself. Snow had melted into her fur, further cooling her down and she realized that they couldn't stay here. They needed shelter and warmth, food as well and there still could be tigers after them, though even after probably hours of unconsciousness, nobody had disturbed them yet.

Standing up, she lifted Po's shoulders and began pulling him away from the tree. Realizing that this was no good, she moved under his body and lifted him on her back, his face turned towards the sky. She looked around and tried to find a destination to walk to, seeing just trees and snow and the cliff side in every direction.

Still, she began walking, Po on her back. Hours upon hours, she moved, carrying the panda while trying to put one foot in front of the other. Several times she stumbled, righting herself in the last seconds but she felt her limbs laden and knew that she would collapse soon. Looking to her left, she noticed a cave entrance with a soft glow coming out of it in the distance and moved towards it, Po getting heavier by the second. But only a few steps before the entrance, she felt the darkness rush in and collapsed, her last thought of how she had failed her best friend.

* * *

"Finally awake I see." a female voice startled her after she had opened her eyes again.

"What?" Tigress's body shot upwards, her senses going on full alert and readiness.

"You slept quite a while. But you should eat something, I know you're hungry." the voice said and Tigress finally could make out a hooded figure sitting next to a cauldron where an enticing smell emanated from.

"Po!" she said and looked around.

"He will be fine. I bound his injuries but his broken bones will take a while to heal." the figure said.

Tigress looked around and saw Po on a cot at the wall, his chest wrapped in bindings and several more bloody patches on his body to cover cuts she hadn't noticed before. He was breathing deeply and steadily, making her calm beyond measure. She looked down at herself and noticed the bindings on her arms and legs where she had suffered injuries but nothing compared to what Po had endured.

"Who are you?" Tigress asked the figure, moving closer to the cauldron.

"A lost soul." came the reply and the figure thrust a filled bowl into her hands.

Any other question was drowned out by her hunger and she began eating. The bowl was emptied quickly and she helped herself to another filling, eating that too, a comfortable feeling settling in her stomach after days without real food. Finally sated, she looked at her hostess, seeing the familiar tail coming out from under the coat and unsheathed her claws.

"Who are you?" Tigress growled.

The figure stood up and moved a few steps towards her. Tigress tensed her body, ready to strike if danger became apparent but her rescuer simply lifted her hands to her hood and pushed it off her head, causing Tigress to take a step back in shock. It was like looking into a mirror. The female tiger in front of her looked exactly like her, every stripe and spot the same and Tigress knew instinctively who had rescued her.

"Mother." she breathed, unable to say any more.

"Yes, Tigress." her mother nodded and opened her arms.

Tigress flew into her mothers embrace, crying tears she hadn't shed since she was a cub, all emotions breaking through the dam she had erected in her heart. She must have stood there for several minutes while the older tiger simply held her tight, letting her cry herself out. Even though she should be asking for the reason of her abandonment, she couldn't stop herself from being thankful at having found her mother.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe we found you."

"It was the last thing I expected as well. I felt some form of explosion but didn't know what to make of it. Hours later I heard the shuffling and when I came out, I saw you lying under that panda bear." her mother explained. "So I took you in, cared for your wounds and started to cook."

"Thank you." Tigress sniffed and then went to Po, her mother following her.

"I hope the sulfuric smell of the lava flow is covering his aroma." her mother chuckled as Tigress sat down to hold Po's paw, making her aware of the smell and how warm the cave was.

"What are you talking about?" Tigress asked, running her other paw gently over his head. "Po doesn't stink."

"Actually, he kind of does but I think that's a habit of his race."

"I never noticed that." Tigress said absentmindedly and continued to stroke Po's head. "I mean, he does have a distinctive musk but I never found it repulsive."

"You really love him, don't you?" her mother asked, voice subdued.

"Uh... what? No!" Tigress protested weakly, somehow lacking the will to do it more convincingly.

"Of course you do." the older tiger smiled, watching her daughter caress the panda's head.

"It doesn't matter." Tigress shook her head. "It could never be."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a tiger and he's a panda."

"What does that have to do with it?" her mother asked. "There have been numerous inter-species couples." she added, making Tigress remember her own master and his romantic interest, who was a fox.

"I could never give him children." Tigress argued and saw her mother smile. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, I find it remarkable that your thoughts immediately went to offspring." her mother chuckled. "But loving someone means more than just procreation. You can adopt."

"It wouldn't be the same."

"Of course not. But how do you know it wouldn't work? There have been cross-species children before." she told her.

"True." Tigress nodded. "But at least the parents were a related species. If Po were a lion or leopard or a jaguar, we'd both be felines at least. But a bear and a panda...?"

"Should that really stand in the way of your happiness?"

"Mother, it's not just that. Who knows if Po really feels the same for me or just some extreme form of fanboy adoration? Also, he's the Dragon Warrior. He has responsibilities to all of China." Tigress sighed. "A relationship would be in the way."

"Tigress. Daughter." her mother knelt down next to her. "The legends say that every Dragon Warrior before him has at some point in his life turned evil and had to be stopped at high cost."

"Yes, and?"

"Could it be possible that a reason for that would be that they fall in love without being able to express it, to find happiness? A warrior needs a balance to fighting. And love is a great equalizer." she explained, causing Tigress to look at Po and imagining him turning evil.

She couldn't fathom Po being bad. Granted, they have seen a bad side of him, either when he was split into a bad Po and a good Po or when he had lost his memory and was convinced of being a crocodile bandit.

"A relationship is distracting." she tried her last card. "I'm a Kung Fu master. A warrior sworn to defend China."

"Even the greatest warrior knows that there is more to life than battle." her mother countered her argument without difficulty.

"But..." Tigress started again but was interrupted by a twitch under her hand. "Po? Po!"

"Ti... gress." Po whispered weakly.

"Oh my god, you're awake. I was so worried." she sniffed, but blamed it on the sulfur fumes.

"You healed me." he smiled at her. "I felt it."

"You helped me." she smiled back, looking into his jade eyes and feeling herself drowning in their radiance again.

"Not to interrupt your reunion but you should eat something, panda." the older female said, a knowing smile on her face.

"Tigress, you found your mother!" Po exclaimed as he got up, his excitement stopped by a painful wince, his barely healed ribs shooting waves of pain into his brain.

"How did you know just like that?" Tigress asked.

"Are you kidding me?" Po chuckled. "Look at her, she looks exactly like you. The spots, the stripes, the white fur in the same place where it's visible. Now I know where Tigress gets her good looks."

"How are you feeling?" Tigress inquired, blushing at the compliment.

"Sore." he winced again and received a slap on his arm. "OW! What was that for?"

"For dying on me!" she cried. "Have you any idea what that did to me?"

"It made you express your Chi again." Po shrugged. "What do you want me to say? That I am sorry that I saved your life?"

"Yes!"

"Well, I won't!" he growled. "If I had the choice, I would do it again!"

"You should eat something before you two do anything rash." Tigress' mother interrupted their spat, knowing that these two, if not stopped, would either kill each other or mate right there and now. "My name is Tigara, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Po." Po shook her paw, taking the bowl with food out of her hand before starting to eat it quickly. "That's delicious."

The two tigers waited silently until Po had eaten his fill, watching him in mirth as he scooped three more bowls out of the cauldron. Tigress took several deep breaths, attempting to calm herself down after almost ripping into her best friend for his brave but foolish stupidity. She also knew that he was still hurt, the wincing visible in his face whenever he took a breath.

"So, now that I have been fed, thank you very much by the way, we need to talk." Po proclaimed, setting down the bowl after licking it clean.

"I guessed as much."

"Why did you leave Tigress at the orphanage?" Po asked, directly getting to the core of their interest.

"I didn't." Tigara replied. "I gave her to people I could trust who took her north, away from here."

"Why?" Tigress wanted to know.

"To protect you."

"I don't understand." Po said.

"That's because you don't know how the tigers have changed during the last two hundred years." Tigara sighed. "We used to be a sophisticated people, with men and women equal in rights."

"And now not anymore?" Po asked.

"No." Tigara shook her head. "The tigers have changed."

"How so?" Tigress spoke up.

"Two hundred years ago, new ideas came over the border, from the other tribes on the Indian side. But those ideas weren't native to them, they came from the Bengals at first."

"What about those ideas?"

"They really are old ideas. Male dominance, female suppression." Tigara replied, making Tigress growl. "What's happening today is just the result of two hundred years of really stupid dogma."

"Why, what happened?" Tigress asked.

"Females became second class citizens. No rights. Only good for one thing. To give birth to offspring, preferably male."

"That's horrible." Po interjected. "Why do the females let the males do that?"

"Because with the idea came something else." Tigara sighed. "Some concoction that females get forced to drink, which makes them completely subservient, unable to resist."

"That's even worse." he shouted.

"What about the constant strife?" Tigress asked, wanting the topic back on track.

"Think about it, daughter." Tigara told her. "The dogma that was slowly adopted by almost all the tigers made male offspring a premium while female offspring was scorned at. Especially in the royal families. Female offspring is killed after birth, no hesitation. And that happens in almost every tribe. The leaders all want strong sons."

"But that's crazy." he interrupted again.

"It is. Also, while there is a rule forbidding the killing of females in common families, that rule gets broken almost every time and the tigers rarely get punished, such is the disdain for females. And a hundred and fifty years of this specific genocide later, a tribe has only a handful of females left."

"Oh my god." Tigress exclaimed, the ramifications coming clear to her. "That would mean too few females to sustain the tribes in the long run, especially when they keep killing female cubs."

"Exactly, my daughter." Tigara nodded. "Now the tribes make war on each other with the sole reason of kidnapping the females."

"Is that why they are making war on each other so much?" Po asked.

"Yes. One tribe assaults another and take their females, drugged as they are, which then makes them a target for other tribes who also want those females. That's why the tribes ally so often with other tribes before switching sides. It's all about the females."

"That also stops any kind of diplomacy." Po groaned.

"Why?" Tigress asked.

"Think about it, daughter." Tigara replied. "How do two different tribes create a strong alliance? By marrying the son of one to the daughter of another. But without any royal daughters, no alliance by marriage is possible."

"If females are subdued with some potion, how did you get out?" Po asked.

"The potion can't be used on pregnant females, it would endanger the cubs."

"How did they keep you there when you were pregnant with Tigress?"

"Locked up in chains in a hut and being force-fed by males until I gave birth to my four cubs. Three sons and one daughter." Tigara smiled at Tigress.

"How did you escape?"

"When the guard cut me loose so I could feed my sons, I killed him, grabbed Tigress and escaped. The other males of the tribe were too surprised and didn't react quickly enough to stop me."

"They didn't catch you?" Po asked.

"They tried to. But my father was a ranger, and one of the few honorable tigers, he loved me like he loved his sons and he taught me the skills he had before I became of breeding age. I used those to get away from my pursuers. I went to a village close to Xinan and met a family of merchants who had dealt with our tribe before. I begged them to take my daughter and bring her north."

"By the way, how did you know my name?" Tigress asked.

"Because I gave it to you."

"Oh, I thought the orphanage people named me."

"No, that was me." Tigara said. "And since that day, I lived here in this cave, protected by the sulfur smell and I used my skills to help other females escape."

"I doubt the tigers will be happy that their females disappear." Po mused.

"Why do you think the tigers attack Xinan so often?" Tigara asked him pointedly.

"I don't know." Po shrugged. "I always thought it's part of their aggressive nature."

"No, it's because of the females that have fled there after I helped them escape from their tribes. But even then, no female I know of stayed in Xinan, every single one moved further away. Only a handful of males live in Xinan, honorable males, like my father, who have cast off their aggressive ways."

"They attack a town and kill the inhabitants because they want the female tigers possibly living there?" Tigress asked shocked.

"Yes. That or information where the females might have gone if they aren't there anymore." Tigara nodded. "And I'm pretty sure the townspeople don't know the real reason for the attacks, otherwise they probably would never let any female in."

"What tribe were you from?" Tigress asked.

"I was part of the Go-Sann tribe and your father is still the leader of the tribe."

"Really?" Po perked up. "So Tigress is a princess?"

"Po, stop it." Tigress said.

"My little princess." Po needled her, poking her side with his finger.

"Po, I'm going to hurt you." Tigress smiled at his behavior and turned to her mother. "So, my father wanted to kill me for the crime of being born a girl?"

"Yes." Tigara nodded. "Since he was a cub, he wholeheartedly embraced the dogma. But I'm afraid of what he will do now."

"Why?" Po asked.

"Because of this strange and unusually cold winter." Tigara replied. "The plant that they need to make the potion only grows in the northern part of Bengal territory but this winter is so strong that it even reached that area, even though it's a jungle. The plant is dependent on a certain temperature range, any disruptions over longer periods can kill it off completely. If the winter stays strong like this for another two or three months, the plant will lose its seeds, therefore making it extinct."

"So, by having this winter, the basis for the tiger's current problem is dying?" Tigress wanted to know.

"Yes. But if they can't get any more potion to suppress the female population, small as it is, I'm afraid they will use violence to keep them under control. And it might be the catalyst for your father to unite a great number of tribes."

"How so?"

"Your father is one of the best fighters the tiger tribes have seen in centuries."

"Now I know where Tigress gets her brawn from." Po interrupted with a giggle, earning himself a glare from two tigers.

"Adding to that, he is shrewd. He offered to share some of his potion, if the other tribes... uh... store their females in his camp. Once he has their females, he keeps them and if the other tribe comes to get them, he threatens to kill them." Tigara explained. "Then he gives them a choice, join his tribe or leave. Too many tigers join. Some rival tribe leaders have challenged him and were subsequently killed, allowing him to absorb their tribe into his own. Those leaders who have pledged their allegiance to him have become his lieutenants."

"How many tribes has he absorbed like that already?" Po asked.

"From what I could discern, between five and seven. All of them were smaller than his though but combined, they are tipping the balance of power. Other tribes as strong as his can't attack him directly because they would have to use every male able to fight. But they also need to guard their own females, who get quite upset without the potion to subdue them, from kidnapping mission of smaller tribes who see an opportunity."

"This politicking is making my head hurt." Po winced, then held his chest when he took a deep breath.

"Po, this is what Borus Mero warned us about." Tigress said to him. "A strong leader who can unite the tigers."

"You're right." Po nodded.

"He needs to be stopped." she proclaimed, getting up.

"Hold on." Po said, getting up as well, with a little difficulty. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To stop my father from endangering China with an unstoppable army of tigers." Tigress replied.

"Not alone you're not." Po stated defiantly, seeing Tigress' determination and knowing he wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise. "I'm going with you."

"Po, you're hurt. You wouldn't last a day out there."

"Then I'm going to heal myself."

"How?"

"The same way you did." he pointed to her. "Focusing my Chi and use it to heal my broken bones."

"Po..."

"And don't you dare sneak out of here while I'm doing that."

"Don't worry." Tigara interjected. "I will keep her here."

"I am a Master of Kung Fu." Tigress stated, crossing her arms. "How do you propose to keep me here if I don't want to stay."

"I'm a tiger ranger. I have carried you out of a tiger tribal camp, through a hundred guards to get you to safety. In the twenty-five years since then I have fought a lone guerrilla war against the tribes and helped a lot of females escape." Tigara returned calmly. "I think I can stop you from leaving if I have to."

"Fine." Tigress huffed as Po sat down and began to concentrate.

"I will make some provision for the trip." Tigara said. "I also have compass you can take and some clothes more suitable for this weather."

"Thanks, that will..." Tigress started but was startled quiet when she felt Po's Chi radiating out of him.

As soon as she saw him glow, she knew that he wasn't just using his regular Chi but the Heroes Chi he had gotten from the peach tree. Some form of autopilot made her walk up to and kneel in front of him, seeing his arms resting on his legs, palms up. As if knowing what to do, she put her own palms into his and closed her eyes. As soon as she was connected to him, she felt herself plunge into him again, feeling the pull of his being suck her in.

She knew her hands were tightly pressed against his, just as she knew that her teeth were clenched tightly together but she couldn't feel them, any of it. So focused was her mind that there was nothing else in the universe that seemed able to penetrate into her consciousness. Not the cave, not the figure of her mother beginning to prepare their provisions. Nothing but the Chi and their connection.

And Po.

It was a strange sensation, she realized with the small part of her mind that was still able to wonder about a thing like this. Facing each other, her paws in his, so deeply fused together in their combined Chi, it was like their minds and energy had melded together to become a single entity.

She could feel his mental strain as he maintained his Chi to heal his fractured ribs and torn tissue. In a way, it was like a logical extension of the emotional connection they already had before, ever since their hug in the Gongmen City jail. But in another way, it was something completely new, like nothing she had ever experienced before.

Suddenly, in this mental rapport, she totally and completely knew Po Ping. His hopes and fears, his successes and failures, his strength, weaknesses, highest joys and deepest and most private sorrows. She looked into his innermost being, into the depths of his big and generous heart, even into the very core of his being.

And in that instant of seeing him lay open before her eyes, so she knew that he could see the same things in her. Yet it wasn't as frightening as she expected. Quite the contrary, it felt in a way completely exhilarating. Never before had she experienced such a closeness to another being, someone who understood her as intimately as she understood him. She had no idea such a relationship could exist.

And she hadn't realized before now, how desperately and badly she wanted to have such a relationship. It was the most surprising thing of it all. The sudden realization how much locking herself away from others emotionally had ended up hurting her, how the refusal to accept the existence of that need had stunted her growth and life.

It was unfortunate that this insight came right now. Now that they were about to face a threat that might be stronger than they were and that could very well be the end of them. But she knew that she would fight to her last breath to protect Po from harm, just as she knew that he would move mountains to protect her.

With a sudden intake of air, his healing was finished and their connection severed. Both fell backwards, the emotional weight of what they had just experienced more strenuous than running up the thousand steps a thousand times. She sat up at the same time as him and stared into his jade green eyes while he looked right back into her fiery orange ones. In this instance she knew that she would pounce on him, never wanting to be separated.

"Finally, I thought you would never finish." a female voice interrupted them, making them snap out of their almost trance. "You've been sitting like that for two hours."

"Really?" Po asked, his countenance back to normal. "It felt a lot shorter."

"Yeah." Tigress agreed, still trying to convince herself that it had been a real experience.

"I have made enough food for you to last three days. It will take you two days to reach the Go-Sann camp from here. Just walk southwest from here and as soon as you cross over the hill, you should see it." Tigara told them, handing Po a package and Tigress the compass, along with some clothes suitable for the weather. "I would be grateful if you brought the compass and clothing back. If you survive."

"We intend to." Po replied for both of them, seeing the same promise in Tigress' eyes.

"I am proud of you, my daughter." Tigara hugged Tigress before wrapping her arms around Po and whispering into his ear. "Take good care of her. For all her tough exterior, she has a soft heart."

"I am trying to." he whispered back before turning back to Tigress. "Well then, lets go save China again."

"Yeah, lets." she smiled, following him out into the cold.

She looked at his broad back and smiled to herself. The combination of what her mother has told her and what she experienced during their connection made her more than sure that she was deeply, hopelessly in love with that big panda. And from their connection she knew he felt the same for her. Now they only had to survive another harrowing adventure.

But after that, he was hers. And woe to anyone trying to take him away from her again.

* * *

 **Well, my shift was over, I am home and I have put the finishing touches on the chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.**

 **Review please :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's a new one for this ;)**

 **Alienheart1915: Wow, you are a pessimistic person. Always expecting the worst things ^^**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

"Wow, that camp is big." Po commented as they were laying on a ridge overlooking what looked like a small valley bowl with a gorge behind it, surrounded by mountains.

"Yeah." Tigress nodded, her body close to his, almost invisible in the snow thanks to the white overcoat she had gotten from her mother.

True to Tigara's projection, it had taken them two days to reach the Go-Sann camp. During the night, they had slept in a small dugout Po had made, huddled tightly together for warmth and because of what they had experienced during their Chi meld. Tigress was still somewhat overwhelmed by the ferocity of the emotions she had felt but she had accepted most of it and was looking forward to the conversation she needed to have with her panda.

But not to the conversation she would also most assuredly have with her foster father.

She watched the comings and goings of them camp, seeing two tigers stand at the open gate while several group were standing at attention or sparring, officers yelling at them. And directly in the middle of the camp was a mound of earth with a throne on top, a menacing looking tiger sitting on it, two swords across his lap and three other tigers standing behind him, presumably his lieutenants.

She let her gaze wander around the camp, seeing wooden blockhouses built seemingly without plan, creating meandering pathways between them which would hinder any quick troop movements in case of an emergency and would allow an intruder to sneak more easily into the compound. Only one building seemed to be more ordered, sitting almost directly at the western palisade.

"There." she whispered to Po. "That building has guards."

"Then that must be where they are keeping the females." Po nodded.

"There is a hole in the palisade wall." she pointed to the west side, close to another building next to the prison.

"Good a way as any to get in." he shrugged.

"But how do we do this?" she sighed. "There are way too many tigers in there for us to fight the leader."

"You know, we don't have to kill your father to destroy him or his plans of uniting the tigers." Po said. "It would be enough to get the females away from him."

"You're right." she realized. "If he doesn't have females, the other clans have no reason to stay loyal to him."

"So, we only need to free an undetermined number of female tigers who may or may not be drugged and sneaking them out of the camp, presumably through that hole in the wall, without any of the hundreds of male tigers seeing or hearing us." he mused.

"Yeah, what could be easier." she chuckled a pained laugh.

"I have an idea." he said.

"What?"

"You go around the west to the hole in the wall. Wait ten minutes and then go in. I will create a diversion that hopefully draws the guards away. Depending on their discipline, you might still have to deal with the guards at the prison. And if they are guards inside, they most likely won't leave their post as well. When the females are out, you leave with them and lead them back here and to Xinan."

"What will you do?"

"Challenge him to a duel." Po replied.

"But why should he fight you one on one?" Tigress was doubtful.

"Because he can't afford not to. If he calls for help, he shows weakness."

"Good a plan as any." she huffed. "Alright, I'm going."

"Good luck." he grinned, gently slapping her butt, the audacity of the action stunning her momentarily. "What?"

Tigress growled at him, at least she tried to but the sound that escaped her throat was partially a purr. She couldn't even be mad at him, despite her best efforts but ever since their connection, she felt an attachment to him that went far beyond friendship. In an unspoken agreement, they decided to postpone any talk about it until they were back at the Jade Palace and not lying in the snow in a short distance away from a camp filled with hundreds of tigers who wanted to kill him and kidnap her.

She ran towards the west side of the camp, using trees and snowdrifts as cover until she was around the palisade and near the hole. From the outside, it was leading to a drop that would end in death for anyone falling out of it, explaining to her why it hadn't been repaired yet. Remembering Po having told her to wait for ten minutes, she began climbing immediately, since it would take at least that long to get to it quietly.

* * *

Po counted down the seconds until he had reached six hundred, giving Tigress the time while hoping that she would wait for the commotion to start before doing her part. When he reached the base of the small they had been perching on, he saw the guards at the gate react but he never slowed down or stopped.

When he reached them, they tried to bar his way but Po simply threw a dozen punches, dropping them both into the snow and walking into the compound. Other tigers saw him and stood dumbfounded at his audacity but he never stopped or even acknowledged them until he reached the small mound where the leader was sitting on his throne.

"What have we here?" the tiger growled. "When only half of my raiding party returned, most of them still blind, and told me that a panda and a female tiger had done this to them, I didn't believe them. Makes me almost sad that I killed them for inventing that story to hide their shame."

"Maybe you shouldn't have." Po nodded, never taking his eyes of the leader.

"So there really is the female tiger. Where is she?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Po smiled.

"Oh, I would. And I will when we are done with you."

"We?" Po asked, lacing his voice with enough derision to rile the visible fur of the tiger leader. "Is the great leader of the tigers such a coward that he has to have others do his dirty work?"

"You fat panda!" the leader growled and stood up. "I am Tigerius! Leader of the Go-Sann tribe. Vanquisher of my enemies."

"Oh, chitty-chitty chat-chat." Po mocked the tiger.

"I will skin you with my bare hands!" Tigerius shouted, his rage apparent. "Tell me your name so that I can stitch it into my new rug which I will hang in the Emperor's palace after my armies have conquered China!"

"My name is Po. I am the Dragon Warrior."

"The Dragon Warrior?" Tigerius scoffed. "I see neither a dragon nor a warrior. All I see is a big, fat panda."

"Many have made that mistake." Po returned, buying time with conversation.

"And now you're doing what? Trying to defeat and kill me?"

"No, I'm here to defend China." Po stated. "I don't need to kill you, you have already killed yourself."

"What?" Tigerius scoffed again. "Look around you, panda. You are surrounded by five hundred battle-hardened soldiers. Behind me is a path down the mountain to a camp a lot bigger than this, also filled with battle-hardened soldiers. And when my conquest of the other clans is done, my armies will number in the thousands!"

"Yet your people are doomed." Po said, adding sympathy to his voice. "Look around you. Five hundred battle-hardened soldiers. How many females? I see none. How many cubs are you raising to replace your losses? I see none here."

"That makes no difference." Tigerius growled but Po could see that several other tigers were looking around, thoughtful expressions on their faces.

"Doesn't it?" Po mocked. "How many of your soldiers are fathers?"

"ENOUGH!" Tigerius yelled. "You will die for your insolence."

"Are you tiger enough to face me one on one?" Po got into his fighting stance.

"Against a fat panda like you, I don't need help!" Tigeruis shouted again, effectively having made this a duel, just as Po wanted.

"Then get ready to FEEL THE THUNDER!" Po yelled and charged the leader of the tribe.

* * *

Finishing her count, she squeezed through the hole in the wall, creeping forward on all fours to avoid making sounds. Tigress flattened herself against the wall of the prison, hearing footsteps coming from the inside and growls emanating from even farther in. A few seconds later, she came to the corner and took a peek, seeing the two guards standing until a commotion began farther to the middle of the camp. After several more seconds, the guards shrugged and moved towards it, making Tigress smile.

She sneaked into the building, hearing the growls get louder the more she went in. The smell was overpowering, rage, desperation and sadness combined with the stench of soiled hay and excrement. As she tiptoed into the middle area, she saw the rooms that were more like cages, all filled with three or four female tigers each who were clearly not drugged but chained into place nonetheless. It seemed that the drug truly was running out already.

Two guards were patrolling the aisle running in the middle of the cages, while two more were walking outside the middle hall. Tigress moved back out and silently closed in on the first, jabbing two fingers against his neck, immediately dropping him. When she turned to find the second outer guard, she heard steps behind her and saw the second guard looking at her.

Before that tiger could finish drawing breath to sound the alarm, Tigress was on him, claws sunk into his throat. Only a gurgle escaped his throat and she felt bad for having to end a life but the other part of her, the female filled with empathy and compassion, couldn't care less for killing someone willing to hold women as slaves.

She took the spear the guard had been carrying and moved towards the middle room again, seeing the two other guards patrolling their route. She waited a few seconds, finding no room to take one out without the other noticing it and accepted the fact that she had to kill again. Hefting the spear, she lined it up and threw it, hitting the second tiger in the back who collapsed with a shout.

The first guard turned around to see what was happening and in that moment, Tigress pounced. Unfortunately, he was quick in regaining his composure and used his spear to block her attack, growling into her face. She noticed how big he was, easily as tall as Po if not as heavy but her training gave her some advantages. She quickly punched him several times, her paws bouncing off his armor and only the hits against his face having any effect at all but he pushed her off him and growled loudly.

He went on the offensive, spear stabbing in a fast motion, forcing Tigress to backpedal rapidly to avoid getting hit. She had underestimated the male, forcing her to be on the defense and only her training, speed and agility allowed her to survive the onslaught. Momentarily lapsing in concentration, she took a hit directly into the chest and folded forwards, receiving a metal-covered knee into the face. She mewled in pain and fell backwards, against one of the cage doors and saw the male run for her.

Jumping up and over him, she spun in the air and delivered a hard kick against the back of his helmet which did nothing but make the male's head ring. Unable to stop his momentum, the tiger turned and slammed into the cage door, bending the steel bars with his weight. Growling, he smiled a wicked smile but before he could take a step forward, a tail came through the bars and wrapped itself around his throat.

Two more tails came out and wrapped themselves around his upper arms, holding them against the cage door and preventing him from clawing at the tail around his throat. His growl became a choke as he tried to breath but the three females in the cage holding him were unrelenting. Two minutes later, the eyes of the guard glassed over and he dropped down, dead.

"Get us out of here." the female who had choked the guard, growled.

"I intent to." Tigress nodded and searched the guard, finding the cage keys on him.

She quickly opened the doors and unlocked the shackles of every tiger inside, the females looking warily at their rescuer, surprised to see a female who was kicking ass and not locked up. The lead female, at least Tigress thought she was the leader, grabbed the spear of the fallen guard, another taking the weapon of the second guard in sight and using it to kill the guard Tigress had knocked out.

"No, don't go out there and fight." Tigress warned them.

"Why not?" the lead tiger asked. "Have you any idea what we suffered?"

"No." Tigress shook her head. "I can't even imagine."

"I was held captive by my own tribe for ten years. In that time I have given birth to thirty-one cubs and had to watch as eight of them were murdered before my eyes for being girls." the tiger growled, tears falling out her eyes. "Tigerius will pay for this."

"Tigerius?" Tigress asked.

"Our oh-so illustrious leader." came the reply, making Tigress realize that she never asked her mother about her fathers name.

"Listen, I know you want revenge but running out there and attacking him will only get you killed." Tigress argued.

"Then what are we supposed to do? Sit around here?"

"Do you really want to see him suffer?" Tigress asked.

"Of course!" was the general agreement.

"Then you need to get out of this camp. Escape to where the males will not be able to reach you. Because when he has no females left, he loses his hold on the other tribes and they will most likely destroy him."

"But..."

"She's right." an older tiger matron spoke up.

"Can we trust her?" the lead tiger asked.

"Yes, she's Tigara's daughter. I recognize that striping pattern anytime."

"You knew my mother?" Tigress asked surprised.

"Yes. I was here when she gave birth to you and then fled with you in her arms." the matron nodded. "Never seen something more brave. She killed four guards, grabbed you and fled back out."

"If you can be quiet, we can flee the camp the way I came in." Tigress said. "There is a path leading into the forest. But it's a bit of a climb."

"We're tigers, we can climb." the leading tiger replied. "My name is Lyanna."

"Tigress." Tigress introduced herself. "I have a question. My mother told me that females were being subdued by a potion..."

"There is barely any left." Lyanna scoffed. "Ever since this winter started, no more potion has come from the south. Tigerius has kept us in chains to save the meager stock he has left. He needs it for the days he or another he deems worthy wants to mate with us."

"If we move to the western side of the camp, we can get some gear from the storage building there. We should also raid the larder right next to it." the matron advised, stopping the talk about the potion.

"We shouldn't risk being seen by the guards." another female spoke up.

"Don't worry, the guards are distracted." Tigress said and led the other females out of the building.

They crept through the camp, trying to use already hard packed ways to prevent their footprints giving away their destination. Even though there were already lots of prints, most were made by armored feet and not bare paws. They got to the storage depot without seeing any guards and went inside, every tiger grabbing winter gear and food from the adjacent larder, stuffing it into packs. One by one, the tigers squeezed through the hole Tigress had used to infiltrate the camp, the larger leader having some problems.

"There is something suspicious going on here." one of the other females still inside the camp said. "Where are all the guards?"

"They are watching the distraction." Tigress replied.

"What distraction?" Lyanna asked from outside.

"SHAKABOOEY!" they all heard.

"What the hell was that?" Lyanna wanted to know.

"That was the distraction." Tigress smiled. "I didn't come here alone. Now move."

"Alright, we're all out, come on." Lyanna waved Tigress outside, since she was the only one left inside the camp.

"Move west for two li, then circle the camp and head north east. You will reach Xinan in two days, earlier if you hurry." Tigress advised them.

"You're not coming?" another female spoke up.

"No, I have to help my friend." Tigress shook her head. "Go!"

Not waiting for a reply, Tigress hurried towards the commotion caused by Po. She crept towards the center of the camp, where hundreds of tigers were gathered to watch the fight in the middle. Po had kept his word, challenging Tigerius to a duel, something the leader of the tribe couldn't back down from without losing face.

She jumped onto the roof of one hut, staying flat on her front to avoid being seen. She watched as Po and Tigerius fought, two seemingly evenly matched animals who fought with different styles. Po was his usual pondering panda style. He wasn't as quick as his opponent but when he hit, his fists did some damage, especially when they hit Tigerius in the face.

The tiger on the other hand was faster than Po and had the advantage of a suit of armor and two swords. Po dodged most sword attacks but even he had several cuts on him, blood staining his fur. Tigerius didn't look any better, one of his canines was broken off and he was bleeding from the mouth while his armor had several dents where Po had hammered his fists against it.

Tigerius jumped at Po, swords twirling in figure eights, but this time, Po grabbed a spear from one of the tiger, spinning it around like a badly balanced quarterstaff to block the attacks, the sound of metal hitting metal or wood ringing across the area. Tigress hoped that Po had a plan of getting out because even if he was able to beat Tigerius, the other tigers would surely attack him afterwards.

"LORD TIGERIUS!" a voice shouted from her left. "THE FEMALES ARE GONE!"

That announcement created pandemonium, practically ending the fight. Without orders, tigers were running across the camp, searching the area. Several others jumped on the roofs of other buildings, using the height to get a farther field of vision. Tigress tried to stay as still as she could but unfortunately, her hood wasn't over her head and the orange of her fur stood out in stark contrast to the white of the roof she was lying on.

"An intruder!" a tiger on a roof close to hers shouted.

"Damn it." Tigress cursed and stood up, discarding her winter parka for better range of movement.

"A female!" other tigers roared. "Get her!"

"Tigress!" Po shouted and Tigress jumped from the roof onto the heads of several tigers, running across them to reach her panda.

"Po!" she yelled, as she reached him and pressed her back against his, both protecting the other.

"Good job freeing the females." he said while watching their enemies.

"Thank you. Although we could have made a better plan for the aftermath."

"I told you to leave with them." he admonished.

"Po, what made you think I would ever leave you alone?" she returned.

"Because I had a plan to get out of here, but I don't know for sure if that would work with two people." he growled, keeping some of the tigers at bay who hesitated, not knowing if the rules of the duel were still on, even with another opponent.

"They are really gone!" a returning Tigerius roared, having checked the females' prison. "Kill the panda. Bring me that tiger."

"You will never get me... FATHER." Tigress shouted.

"Ah, I see the resemblance now. You're Tigara's cub who she fled with." Tigerius chuckled. "It doesn't matter. I might not be able to have kids with you but I think my lieutenants will fight for the chance to possess a fine female like you."

"Touch her and I'll kill you." Po growled, his eyes getting the same look he had after Shen had shot Tigress with his cannon.

"Kill him!" Tigerius shouted and all hell broke loose again.

In this enclosed space, the tigers' numbers actually worked against them, causing them to bump into each other and preventing a lot of them from swinging their long weapons. Po and Tigress had no such problems and fought like they were possessed, kicking and hitting left and right, breaking bones, teeth and wooden shafts of weapons.

Acting on instinct, Tigress jumped up and did a back flip, her paws landing in Po's, who swung around like someone trying to throw a hammer. Tigress kicked out as hard as she could, dozens of tigers flying away but new ones always took their places. A strange sense of fatalism overcame her, knowing that this would be her last fight but she realized that there was nobody she would rather spend the last few seconds of her life with.

"Po, I need to tell you something." Tigress panted during a break in the fight, while the tigers organized themselves for another push.

"Can't it wait?" he asked. "This isn't really the time."

"It's important that I tell you before we die." she sighed. "Po, I..."

Anything else she tried to say was moot when three tigers suddenly tackled Po, opening her backside up for attack. She tried to turn around but two pairs of strong hands grabbed her arms and held her tight while someone pressed a bottle against her lips and squeezed the contents into her mouth.

She was so shocked at the sudden turn of events that she couldn't even stop herself from swallowing. Spitting out would have been impossible anyway with the hand holding her jaw shut and she felt the bitter liquid running down her throat, causing her to gag.

"Tigress, spit it out. Yak it."

As the hand covering her mouth disappeared while the ones holding her arms tight remained, Tigress roared loudly but felt her free will sapping away. Her head hurt and her mind felt foggy, Po's shouts fading into the distance as the elixir took hold of her body, making her limbs already feel like steel. Po was still shouting but suddenly her brain registered a word that caused a certain reaction inside her body.

"Tigress, SLURP!"

"Huaaah." Tigress heaved, a vile brown liquid rushing up her throat and exiting her mouth.

"NOOOOO!" Tigerius roared, seeing the most of his remaining potion seep into the mud below their feet. "You will pay for this!"

Tigress, her will restored and rage heightened, jumped up and did a split kick to get the two tigers holding her off of her, jumping backwards to get closer to Po. Tigerius roared as he ran at them, swinging his swords in wide arcs and frothing at the mouth in rage. The large tiger spun around in a circle, forcing Po and Tigress to defend themselves ferociously and only the fact that most of the other tigers were still running around looking for the females who had fled saved them from being crowded and defeated.

Tigerius proved to be a very skilled fighter, holding his own against the two Kung Fu masters. Tigress became worried that they soon would have every tiger against them, not just the handful who interfered in their fight, most of them being thrown back or even killed by Tigerius himself, who seemingly had lost the ability to distinct between friend and foe.

"Tigress, get ready!" Po shouted as he rolled to the side, Tigerius turning with him and presenting his back to her.

Suddenly, the dance stopped when Po used his Chi to block Tigerius' weapons with his arms, catching the blades in his paws and holding them tight. Although it pained her to do so, she grabbed a halberd from one of the fallen tigers and rammed it through a crack in Tigerius' plate armour, pushing forward until she felt resistance from the front chest plate, piercing his lungs.

"What..." Tigerius gurgled, turning slightly to look aghast at Tigress before he dropped his swords and collapsed to the ground.

"I'm sorry father." Tigress sobbed, her feelings extremely conflicted after being forced to kill her own biological father.

"How could that be? You're just a female." Tigerius breathed before his eyes glassed over and he died.

Tigress got up and Po stood next to her, both watching as over four hundred battle-hardened tigers surrounded them, seemingly united but clearly split into three separate groups, with several pathways between them. With their backs to the building Tigress had perched on before, they looked left and right for a possible means of escape, finding none. Suddenly, Po grabbed one of Tigerius' swords and, to Tigress' utter shock, swiftly beheaded the dead tiger.

"YOUR LEADER IS DEAD!" Po shouted on top of his lungs, lifting the head high before kicking it over the northern wall, where it fell down the cliff into the larger tiger camp inside the gorge.

"What good did that do?" Tigress whispered.

"Kill them!" the leader of the left wing of the tiger troops shouted, pointing at them.

"I don't take orders from you." the leader of the middle group returned, stopping the tigers that were already in motion towards Po and Tigress, who held their ground.

"I'm his successor!" the right leader shouted at the other two.

"Over my dead body!" the middle one returned.

"That can be arranged!" the left one added, running at the middle leader with spear at the ready.

"Come on." Po grabbed Tigress' paw, pulling her around the building, away from the chaotic melee that had started.

"Po, how did you know they would fight each other?" Tigress wanted to know, while both began defending against those tigers who came after them.

"They all wore different armor, so I guessed that they divided at their tribal lines. Your mother did say that the tribal leaders who swore their loyalty to your father became his lieutenants." Po replied, punching another tiger in the face and sending the animal flying, howling in pain.

They got to the western end of the compound, near the hole that Tigress had used to get in. She thought briefly about using it to get out since the tigers in their armor would never fit through it but if they didn't fit through, her panda most certainly would not . She blocked another attack, the weapon arm heavy with the armor and stopping her from moving until she managed to kick the tiger into the armored knee, the impact still sending him toppling.

While she had dealt with the tiger, another had taken a run at her, his halberd lifted high and ready to swing down. Tigress felt everything go into slow motion and she knew that she would never be able to block the blow when suddenly, the tiger reared back and stiffened before falling face first into the snow, another armored tiger behind him, a dagger in hand, face covered but eyes smiling at her.

Female eyes.

"It seems I underestimated your panda." Tigara smiled after lifting the face plate of the helmet.

Tigress turned to her left and saw Po, eyes half closed, defending himself against seven tigers at once, all armed with swords and halberds but none even coming close to hitting him. She was awed by the display. Po demonstrated the Bushido technique he had learned from Yijiro, the samurai prawn Tigress had briefly had a crush on, using it to deflect every attack against him and even steering the halberds of two of the tigers into their comrades.

Tigress heard a roar and saw dozens of tigers run at them. She turned to her mother but to her surprise, she was gone, having disappeared into the melee and presumably fleeing the compound to lead the females away to safety. She jumped into the fray and together with her panda, quickly dispatched the tigers attacking him.

"Po, what can we do?" she asked as they watched fifty tigers running towards them, murder in their eyes.

"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly, but still audible over the din.

"With my life." she immediately replied.

"Okay." he returned and she felt him hug her from behind.

"What...?" she started but then she saw his hands come together in front of her, his right thumb and middle finger grasping his left index finger, right pinkie extended. "Po, what are you doing?"

"Skadoosh!" he said and all Tigress could see was light.

The fifty tigers stopped running, looking perplexed at the peach petals that floated away above them. Then they shrugged and returned to the melee in the center of the camp, fighting for their original leader.

And in the gorge to the north, four thousand more tigers tore each other apart after the head of their leader had fallen into their midst.

* * *

 **So, a bloody spectacle came to an end and Po and Tigress made it out. What do you think? :D**

 **Review please :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Yesterday, my best friend got married and I was his best man. When we got into our separate beds (^^) at four in the morning, I had an alcohol induced bout of insomnia, so I decided to write another chapter of this one on my tablet. I hate writing on that thing.**

 **Or maybe my insomnia was the result of the two pounds of pork I ate, along with some turkey, a lot of fries, potatoes, sauce, fruit dipped into melted chocolate. And all the beer I drank, wine, baileys and whiskey.**

 **But hey, I made another one ^^**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

"You can open your eyes now." she heard Po say.

Tigress did as he said and opened her eyes, but they went wide as saucers as she realized where they were. She noticed them floating in the air and began to scramble for some purchase while Po floated as if he was really on water, calm as it came. Then again, Po had been here before, twice apparently. She noted the darker area to the far left with what looked like floating ruins but right now, they were floating towards a small, brightly lit island with a peach tree in the middle.

"Wow! The spirit realm. This is so awesome!" she heard but was shocked to realize that the voice was her own. "I mean, why did you bring us here?"

"That was my exit strategy." he told her. "But we could be having a little problem now."

"Which is?" she asked.

"I have no idea if I can return with someone." he sighed as they reached the boundary of the island.

"Dragon Warrior." a very old voice chuckled. "Oh, and young Master Tigress."

"Master Oogway." Tigress bowed, an action made somewhat ridiculous given that she was currently upside down.

"Wait, let me help you." Po said and grabbed her paw, pulling her down and to her feet.

"Thanks Po." Tigress smiled, seeing him glow.

"I see some regret in you but you also feel more free. More at peace with yourself." Oogway commented on Tigress, smiling his gentle elderly smile.

"I had to kill my biological father." Tigress sighed.

"But you don't regret killing him as much as you accept that he had to be stopped, even if the result was ending his life." Oogway told her, clearly taking apart her emotions and laying them out for her.

"I feel someone watching us." Po spoke up, sniffing the air, Tigress doing the same but smelling nothing out of the ordinary.

"Yes, it's someone who has waited for you to return." Oogway nodded.

"Why?" Tigress asked.

"Because he wants to return to the real world."

"Who is he?"

"I think I know who it is." Po growled, turning around to watch a spot in the distance where Tigress couldn't see anything, even though her eyes were sharper than his.

"Yes." Oogway smiled. "He thinks he's stealthy but his Chi makes him stand out like a torch in the night."

"I can see him." Po said, turning his body to follow Tai Lung's movement.

"I can't see him." Tigress shook her head.

"Because you try to see with your eyes." Oogway counseled.

"How else would I see?" Tigress asked, feeling like a young cub in her first training session.

"Use your Chi." Oogway told her. "You know how, you did it before when you were healing the injuries of the Dragon Warrior."

"I'll take care of him." Po said and shot away like a cannonball.

"I don't know how to do it again. I don't even know how I did it before." Tigress told Oogway, watching Po move behind one of the floating ruins. "And to tell you the truth, I don't particularly feel at peace."

"You are experiencing some emotional turmoil. But you are at peace with your past, that is all that you needed for you to finally find inner peace." Oogway smiled. "But lets get back to your training. What did you feel when you healed Po?" the old turtle pushed her onward.

"I felt... regret. Loss. Sadness. Fear of being alone."

"Those feelings aren't suitable for healing purposes." Oogway interjected. "What did you feel when you were healing him and seeing it working?"

"I felt... hope. Relief. Joy."

"And?"

"And... I can't." Tigress shook her head.

"Why not?" Oogway smiled a knowing smile.

"He is the Dragon Warrior."

"So?"

"That title is important to him. To China. I'm afraid that they will take it away from him if he and I..."

"Young Tigress." Oogway snapped her out of her reverie. "Being the Dragon Warrior is more than just a fancy title. That's why I didn't choose you."

"Oh." Tigress said dejected.

"Don't get me wrong." Oogway quickly stopped her from getting depressed. "In terms of fighting ability, you would have made a great Dragon Warrior. But the way Shifu raised you and you trained yourself, you would have lacked the compassion and emotional connection to others the Dragon Warrior needs and your aggressiveness could also do more harm than good when untempered by restraint. Although our panda has gotten you to open up quite a lot."

"Yes, he did." Tigress smiled shyly.

"And Master Tigress, it would be a shame if you buried your feelings when they are so strong because of the mistaken belief that it would be wrong for China."

"But the Dragon Warrior has a lot of enemies."

"And you are more than capable of taking care of yourself. If the danger to people close to the Dragon Warrior was a factor, I would have had to choose an orphan to prevent the Dragon Warrior getting distracted by dangers to his parents."

"I..."

"Just think back to what you felt when Po woke up. Think back to what happened when you connected to him during his own healing." Oogway advised.

"You know about that?"

"Young master, when you and master Po connected, it was like a sun was going up here."

"How?"

"If you have the sight, you can see people's Chi being reflected here. But only of those who have a strong Chi. That's how I know that Shifu is doing well, that Po is doing well and your fellow masters as well."

"And me?" Tigress asked.

"You were visible brightly once, after the Dragon Warrior had defeated Kai. After that, your Chi has been subdued and has gotten darker until you practically exploded with light when Po hurt himself. And that darkness was why I told him to find a way to help you achieve inner peace."

"Do you really think I was jealous of Po?"

"Yes." Oogway nodded. "Even if you don't think so. But you have been ever since I named him Dragon Warrior and it had gotten worse when he defeated Tai Lung."

"What did you see in him when you named him?"

"On the first day I met him, I saw the future of Kung Fu. And the past. I saw the panda who could unite them both. And that is why I chose him. He is both sides of the Yin and Yang." Oogway recounted proudly. "I told him the same thing when he was here after defeating Kai."

"Would it be possible for me to see if my mother is alright and if the females she wanted to lead away are as well?" Tigress asked.

"Don't worry, they are fine." Oogway told her and his posture told her that he spoke the truth.

"THE TITLE IS MINE!" someone suddenly shouted before Po flew past them and landed securely on his feet and a white snow leopard followed him.

"What the hell?" Tigress wondered.

"Tai Lung, I won't fight you." Po stated calmly, defending against the leopards renewed attacks but never throwing a punch himself.

"Then you will die!" Tai Lung screamed and kicked Po hard, the panda flying away even though he blocked the attack.

"That's enough!" Tigress shouted and threw a side punch when Tai Lung was shooting past her, altering his trajectory until the leopard flew into one of the floating ruins, shattering it apart.

Tigress jumped after him, she physical characteristics of the spirit realm making it a far reaching leap but it also made her realize that she had miscalculated the force of the jump. She shot towards Tai Lung likea cannonball, the leopard still shaking his head to clear it after the impact and she hit him like a ton of bricks, making him fly into another ruin only to crash through it and into yet another.

The leopard came at her and the two felines exchanged furious blows, neither holding back. She had more success against him than in their first fight but the leopard was still a lot better than her and was slowly but surely forcing her back, the fact that they were floating not helping. After a particularly hard blow, she flew backwards and saw Oogway and Po standing on the turtle's island, watching her fight with the leopard but not doing anything to interfere.

 _'Why aren't they helping me?'_ she wondered but just when she finished the thought, she knew why.

Her aggressiveness was intrinsic to her species and she always had to fight to control her temper. She never backed down from a challenge, something that had gotten her into trouble before, for example when she used the spirit orbs recklessly just to beat Po in something. Or when she had moved to the Garnet Palace because her desire to become better made her think that something like companionship and fun was something that only happened to others.

"No." she whispered, getting out of her fighting stance and pushing out her paw, palm forward towards the nearing Tai Lung.

She felt her Chi flare inside her and a bright flash shot out of her hand, the leopard bouncing off as if having hit a rubber wall and flying away shouting in rage. Tai Lung shook his head in confusion and jumped at her again and again, she simply put out her hand and calmly rejected the challenge, her Chi making Tai Lung fly by her and into another ruined building that floated in the distance.

Apparently, he had enough because the leopard didn't attack again and she realized that she was seeing his angrily flaring Chi moving further and further away. She smiled at her ability to see him like this, since it meant that she must have passed the lesson Oogway had tried to teach her, to tap into her emotions peace and tranquility instead of aggression and fury.

"Very good, young master." the old turtle smiled benign. "I didn't think you would get it so quickly."

"Fighting or direct confrontation is not always the only solution." she bowed to both him and Po, her pride at her accomplishment burning comfortably in her.

"Exactly." Oogway nodded. "Do you want to stay here or return home?"

"Can we both go home?" Tigress asked, worrying that she wouldn't be able to get back.

"Who knows?" Oogway shrugged. "But I don't see why not. Po has already proven that he can return and you two have such a strong connection, I doubt that one can go without the other if you really want to."

"How strong is that connection?" Po asked.

"When Tigress' Chi flared up for the first time, it was already close. But when you used the heroes Chi to heal yourself and she joined you, I watched as your Chi combined. As if your souls were about to merge."

"Like soulmates?" Tigress asked with a smile.

"Who knows?" Oogway shrugged again, smiling. "That is something you need to figure out. But you should return now. Your fathers are worried about you."

"So, ready to get back?" Po asked Tigress extending his paws.

"Yes." she nodded and put her own on his, linking their fingers.

Po pushed them off the ground and both floated over the Chi ocean where they got down to almost touching the energy. Po began whispering the words peach tree as he dipped his toe into the energy and swirled it around, creating a small and vague yin and yang shape which soon became more pronounced and expanded rapidly, creating a suction that pulled their bodies down.

Tigress felt panic rise inside her, fearing that the process would push them into oblivion but Po held her tight, pulling her even closer and wrapping his big arms around her body. She clung to him for dear life, mewling in fear that something would go wrong as her fur started to ruffle in a gust of wind that wasn't a wind while the light around them got brighter and brighter, forcing her to close her eyes.

* * *

"Master Shifu! Master Shifu!" Mantis shouted, disturbing the aging red panda in his meditations.

"Yes, Mantis, what is it?" Shifu asked, as the other masters exited their rooms to learn what the commotion was all about.

"Something strange is happening at the Sacred Peach tree." the bug told his master, whose ears perked up.

"Define strange."

"A lot of petals have come from practically nowhere and are collating in a tighter and tighter circle, their glow getting stronger as well." Mantis described and as if to underline his description, a glow became visible through the window.

"Quickly, we need to get there." Shifu ordered, expecting the worst, and jumped up himself, hurrying out the back and up the stairs to the tree, the four masters behind him.

The group ran to the tree, taking the last few steps to witness what Mantis had described. The peach petals were glowing brightly and ever increasing the speed of their circulation, creating a small vortex that made the masters' fur flatten. Shifu tried to see what was happening, using the Chi sight Oogway had taught him and almost flinched back from the glare he got back.

"Whatever that is, it's power of Chi is growing at an alarming rate." Shifu called to the other masters. "Get ready to defend if whatever is coming isn't friendly."

"Master, this vortex looks exactly like the one Po came back through in the panda village." Viper said.

"You're right." Shifu nodded. "Still, remain on guard."

They watched as the petals' glow got even brighter while their vortex tightened up. A flare ignited in the middle, as if a small sun had been created and it grew several sized when it suddenly blew off and revealed a large black and white panda holding a orange-furred tiger, both turning in the air, being held aloft by the petal vortex.

"Po! Tigress!" the group called out in surprise.

Their two fellow masters continued to rotate in the air until the vortex suddenly cut out, like it had in the panda village and with startled shouts, both dropped. They watched as Po turned his body in the air so he hit the ground first, protecting the tiger resting on his chest from harm while he grunted as his body fat absorbed most of the impact.

"It worked." Po laughed in relief.

"Po. Tigress." Shifu said. "What happened?"

"Uh, we came back." Po replied.

"I can see that." Shifu returned. "I mean, why and how did you come back like this?"

"We were in a situation with no escape, so Po used the Wuxi Finger hold on himself while he was holding me." Tigress told him.

"I look forward to debriefing you." Shifu nodded. "But panda?"

"Yes, master?" Po asked.

"Would you kindly let go of my daughter?" Shifu growled.

"Oh, sorry." Po chuckled in fear, unclasping his paws from behind Tigress, who made no move to actually get up.

"Do we have to debrief now or can we rest for the night?" Tigress wanted to know, sitting up but staying on the Po's chest, while the panda looked at the scowling upside down figure of her father.

"We can debrief in the morning, after you had a good nights sleep." Shifu stated and turned to leave. "In your own rooms."

"Yes, master." Po agreed, afraid of what Shifu might do.

"Welcome back!" the other masters yelled and hugged their friends and comrades, falling upon them like they did with Po in Gongmen harbor.

"Finally, we can have real food again." Monkey gushed.

"Why, who cooked while we were gone?" Po asked.

"Viper on the first day, after which we forbade her to ever go into the kitchen by herself, sometimes Zeng and oftentimes we ate at your dad's restaurant." Mantis replied.

"Then you mostly had good food." Po pointed out. "But don't worry, I'll cook again."

Th five masters followed Shifu in a respectful distance, all moving towards the barracks. Po headed to the washroom to get clean the mud out of his fur, Tigress following him until Shifu cleared his throat. She glared at her foster father and stepped into the second washroom, separated from the first by just a paper wall that didn't leave much to the imagination when both watched the others shadow moving around.

Tigress sat in her tub, thinking about what had happened while listening to Po hum a tune as he scrubbed himself. She looked into herself and found that she didn't have any regret about the loss of her biological father, the fact that she had helped save China from a terrible danger, a great thing in her mind. She had also saved several female tigers and found both her mother and the real reason for her abandonment, which had been not the bad reason she had feared.

"Good night, Tigress." Po called through the door, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Night, Po." she called back and began to scrub herself clean as well.

After her fur was ruffled but clean, she stepped out of the tub and dried herself off before exiting the room wrapped in her towel. She slowly walked into her own room, throwing her towel off and putting on her night robe, eschewing the wraps for her private parts in favor of comfort. She sat down on her bed and breathed in the evening air coming through the open window. Looking out, she suddenly felt terribly alone, after so long having had a constant companion.

Acting on an impulse, she got up and opened her door, peering into the hallway to see if anyone was there and when seeing and hearing no one, she sneaked over to the opposite room, opening the door to find Po lying on his cot, his broad arms behind his head and his gaze to the ceiling. She noticed that he had cleaned up a bit, no more memorabilia or empty food bowls lying around, the former neatly put on shelves and the latter nonexistent since Po had headed straight to his room after bathing.

"Tigress." he sat up, surprised at her presence and also appearance, the showing of her curves still a surprising sight to him, even though he had seen her naked already, if only by accident. "Anything you need?"

"I'm not really sure." she sighed, thankful that he had been mindful enough to whisper. "I was sitting on my bed and it felt like something is missing."

"Thinking about your mother?" he asked.

"That too." she nodded. "I hope she got the females to safety."

"Given how ferocious the different tribal groups were fighting each other, I doubt they had the frame of mind to search for them."

"But other tribes still have their females locked up." Tigress sighed.

"I think your mother will do something about it." Po smiled warmly. "And some of the other females might be willing to help her."

"That could be possible." Tigress realized, thinking of Lyanna and how aggressive she and some of the others were.

"I just hope your mother and possibly the others are careful and don't get cocky." Po said. "The last thing I want to happen is them getting captured by another tribe."

"Po, can I ask you something?" Tigress asked.

"Sure." he shrugged.

"How did you get Tigerius to fight you in a duel?"

"I goaded him."

"How?"

"He asked me if I wanted to kill him and I said that I was only there to defend China because he had already destroyed his tribe and by extension his species, even though he wasn't solely responsible for it."

"What did you say to him?" she wanted to know.

"His dogma with its focus on male cubs and barely any females made the future of his tribes nonviable. Too few females who give birth to replace the tigers he would have lost in a big war against all of China and the lack of new females makes it hard to even do it over a longer period of time."

"You know, as much as I hate what they did to the females, I worry that the tigers will die out." Tigress sighed.

"I worry about that as well." Po said. "Any loss of life is to be mourned, especially when it results from stupid or misguided ideas."

"I'm sorry Po." Tigress put her paw in his, knowing that he was partially referring to Shen destroying Po's own race because of a prophecy.

"It's okay." Po put his other paw over hers, holding hers between his. "You know, Shen's example goes to show that asking a seer about your future is quite dangerous."

"How so?" she asked, enjoying his touch and seeing a soft glow emanating from his paws.

"If Shen had never gone to the seer to ask if he would die, he wouldn't have attacked my village. My mother wouldn't have put me into that radish basket my dad found me in and I wouldn't have lived here in the valley with the Jade Palace which soon hosted the most awesome Kung Fu masters ever."

"Oogway did always say that nothing happens by accident." Tigress interrupted, concentrating hard and adding her own glow to his.

"But Shen's actions caused his end. If he hadn't taken it, he would still live. And maybe rule China." Po shrugged.

"Well look who is a wellspring of optimism now." Tigress moped but grinned and the glow in their hands stopped.

"Sorry." he chuckled.

"Well, I think I will head to bed now." she announced and got up. "See you tomorrow."

"Good night, princess Tigress." Po grinned.

"Repeat that in earshot of anyone else and I will hurt you." she growled playfully but smiled nonetheless, kind of enjoying him calling her that. "Sweet dreams."

She left him alone and returned to her own room, feeling a little better after their short talk. Tigress got on her cot and closed her eyes, turning to the side to try to find a comfortable sleeping position. Twisting and turning, she had a hard time falling asleep despite being tired but as she looked outside at the brightly shining moon, she accepted that sleep might come tonight, for whatever reason.

Listening to the sounds of nature, she heard some feral birds singing, which was unusual for that time of night and the season. A look outside showed her a winter wonderland, the moon and stars illuminating the snow-capped mountains around the palace. A look to the left out of her window presented a glow from the torches in town, the precursors of the upcoming winter festival. She imagined the townsfolk meeting for their habitual dinners, and also spending time with Po and her other comrades at Mister Ping's, eating the delicious soup the old goose would make with Po.

Suddenly, she realized why she couldn't sleep. She still felt alone. Despite her companions in the adjacent rooms, she felt utterly alone. Sitting back down on the bed, she tried to discern any other sounds than the birds singing but it didn't help. She hoped to hear Po snoring, a sound that had begun to sooth her during other nights she had trouble falling asleep but her panda was either still awake of had begun sleeping quietly.

Sighing at the thought of disobeying her father, she opened her door and sneaked across the hall again, opening the other door to reveal the panda on his back, arms straight next to his body and eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Po lifted his head and their gazes locked, both feeling the pull of the other.

Po simply opened his arms in invitation and Tigress, after a second of hesitation, stepped forward, closing the door behind her. She walked up to Po and climbed onto his cot and his body, getting comfortable on his broad chest, her tail wrapping around his left thigh. Her right and his left hand connected and began to softly glow again, filling her body with a warmth she hadn't even realized that she missed. Purring quietly, she nestled her head into his shoulder and closed her eyes, the distinctive and not at all bad smelling musk lulling her into sleep after only a minute.

Several rooms further down the hall, a red panda opened his eyes, letting his Chi sight roam around him and noticing the glow coming from the other room. Not knowing but suspecting the reason for it, he decided to ignore it for the night, hoping for the best. But if his daughter exited the wrong room after he rang the gong, the panda would rue the day he fell out of the sky in front of Oogway.

* * *

 **Wow, I managed to finish this. I'm seriously tired now and breakfast is served in an hour. Maybe I get a little nap in. When I'm home, I'll transfer it to my computer and upload it.**

 **Review please :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Wow, I don't get why so many people thought the last chapter was the actual last ^^ When I end this story, I will mark it Complete :D**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

Tigress felt herself pulled from sleep by gentle pressure across her back. Without opening her eyes yet, she took a few deep breaths, smelling the distinctive musk of her panda companion on whose chest she was resting on. She clearly remembered the night before, going to his room where he welcomed her with open arms, literally so, because she didn't want to be alone.

She felt Po rub his paws over her back, ruffling her fur on their way up and flattening it again when going into the other direction. With a start, she realized that his paws were actually on her fur and not on her robe which she had donned the night before and never taken off during the evening. Opening her eyes and lifting her head, she saw Po face, eyes closed and breathing evenly, and if his mouth hadn't turned into a smile she might have thought that he was still asleep.

"Good morning, Po." she purred, much to her surprise but his short claws massaging her back had that effect on her.

"Morning, princess." he grinned, opening his eyes. "Slept well?"

"Very." she breathed, turning her head to see how he had gotten under her robe.

She saw that he had apparently pulled the back of her robe up, revealing the backside of her otherwise naked body. She had no idea if Po had cupped a feel of her butt while she slept but Po wasn't really the person to do that and she also realized that she didn't really mind if he had done it. She looked into his jade green eyes and began drowning in them again, his slightly lowered eyelids making them hypnotic to look at.

"Want me to stop?" he asked.

"No." she smiled and let moved her legs so she was straddling him, pulling herself up at his shoulders to give him better access to her back.

He added his remaining fingers, his claws gently digging into her skin, causing her to purr once more. Her legs stretched of their own volition, her entire body doing the same as Po calmly massaged her back. She lifted her head back and purred even louder, all the while trying to stop herself from doing it in fear of waking the other masters.

"You know, you're doing one of the two things I will never get tired of." Po spoke up, quietly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Hearing you purr."

"Oh?" she smiled down at him. "And what is the other thing?"

"Seeing you smile." he replied.

"I hardly smiled before you showed up." she told him and grabbed around his shoulders, lowering her mouth towards his when suddenly, the shrill bang of the morning gong interrupted them. "Dammit."

After cursing, Tigress jumped off Po and out the window, hoisting herself up to the roof of the barracks and running across it. When she reached the other side, she jumped back down and through her own window, quickly discarding her robe and donning her wraps, pants and training vest before exiting the room.

"Good morning, master." she said together with the other four, who seemed as surprised by the earlier than usual gong and Po still wasn't out of his room.

"Morning." Po finally greeted Shifu after exiting last. "Why have you woken us this early? Is there an emergency?"

"No." Shifu replied, eyeing both Po and Tigress, the latter not meeting his gaze.

Shifu huffed internally, outwardly only stroking his whiskers. After witnessing the Chi connection of his daughter and the panda, he had purposefully decided to wake them an hour early to see if his suspicions were correct that they had spent the night together. But with his daughter coming out of her own room and the panda habitually late coming out of his, he couldn't be sure but he still was pretty sure that it did happen.

"Since I still need to debrief Po and Tigress, training will be earlier. Tigress, you and the rest of the Furious Five will do three rounds in the training hall." Shifu stated.

"What about Po?" Tigress asked.

"I have a different training in mind for our panda."

"What?" Po wanted to know.

"Endurance. You will..."

"Oh no, please..."

"...use the morning to..."

"... don't say it, I beg of you."

"... run up the thousand steps."

"Noooo!" Po wailed, banging his head against his door frame.

"Ten times."

"GAAAAH!" Po groaned loudly and fell backwards into his room, making Tigress smile and the others chuckle.

"Stop whining panda and get running." Shifu ordered.

"I thought I was their teacher, why do I have to run like it's my first day?"

"You begged me to keep teaching, so I will." Shifu grinned devilishly.

While Po began running, Tigress and the others walked to the training hall, with her being the first into the course. She did her first run almost on autopilot, her mind whirling with the events of the morning. She had almost kissed Po while he had caressed her back and that was something she really had enjoyed.

Shifu's reaction and especially his action towards Po gave the impression that he at least suspected that she had spent the night in Po's arms. She didn't know if he was completely against her and Po maybe becoming an item or if he had another reason for his behavior towards her panda. An almost miss of one of the wooden sparring dummies made her snap back into the present and she focused on her training.

* * *

"This... is... punishment... ugh." Po panted, finally having managed the last steps and fighting hard to stop himself from throwing up.

"You're thinking too much about how hard it is." Shifu admonished. "Remember after you beat Tai Lung? You ran up the stairs to see if I was fine and you didn't collapse in exhaustion."

"I was worried for you."

"That's what I said. You're thinking too much about what you are doing instead of doing it."

"Interesting." Po became thoughtful, already back on his feet.

"Po, a moment please." Shifu stopped him before the panda could move towards the kitchen to make lunch.

"Yes?"

"After your debrief, you and I will talk about my daughter."

"Yes, master." Po swallowed hard and fled into the kitchen.

As he put the noodles into water and prepared the dough for the dumplings, he thought of Tigress and how nice it had felt when he woke up with her sleeping form draped over him. She had looked so peaceful, as if no worries plagued her. Since finding her mother and the true reason for her abandonment in an orphanage, she had found an inner serenity that he could almost taste when he was close to her.

Also, she was a lot more comfortable to be in contact with him. Whereas she mostly avoided him after his arrival at the palace, they had gotten closer over time but it had really changed since she had joined him during his healing where it felt as if his and her consciousnesses were melting together. He decided that he would try to convince her to try it again, to see if those feelings had been a fluke or not.

And did she really want to kiss him this morning? After waking up, he couldn't resist pulling her robe up and caressing her back and her purring gave voice to how much she liked it. But when she had grabbed him and lowered her head, his heart almost leaped out of his chest until the gong had rung, way too early and it looked as if Shifu knew what had transpired, especially since he wanted to talk to him privately

"I'm telling you, you should get it out of your system." Po heard Mantis say as the bug entered the kitchen, followed by the others.

"If you don't stop talking, I'm going to slam you into a wall." Tigress growled, causing the bug to hop off the table onto Crane's head.

"What's going on?" Po asked.

"Nothing." Tigress shook her head.

"Actually..." Monkey started with a grin.

"I said nothing!" Tigress growled, cutting him off.

"Alright." Po shrugged and put their lunch on the table.

"Secret Ingredient soup?" Tigress asked with wide eyes.

"Only the best for my pri... favorite master." Po chuckled, managing not to call her with her new pet name in front of the others.

The group ate in comfortable silence, interrupted only by the compliments of the others regarding Po's cooking. A few minutes after they started, Shifu joined them, eating two bowls as well and left before the others were done, telling Po and Tigress to join him after lunch in the training hall for the debriefing while he gave the other masters the afternoon off.

As the master filed out, Po stayed behind to clean the kitchen. Tigress watched him move around and hum to himself, marveled at how he found comfort and happiness in what seemed to be boring chores for her. Smiling, she joined him, taking the wet dishes from his hands and drying them before putting them away. Soft touches accompanied their work, fingers touching and lingering, gentle rubbing of fur against each other and her tail caressing his right thigh. Ten minutes later, they were entering Shifu's room, sitting down into the lotus position in front of their master.

"So, Master Tigress, Master Po. Please tell me about your journey."

"Well, we traveled with the trade caravan to Zhongyang City and from there to Nan City with another caravan that we had to catch up to." Po started. "In Nan City, some military commander recognized me, we talked and he offered us to accompany him and his battalion to an outpost a few days away from Xinan."

"Any troubles on your journey?" Shifu interrupted.

"Only a bandit attack on our first leg of the journey." Tigress replied. "We easily repulsed it. From there, nobody bothered us."

"After arriving at the military camp, we spent the night there." Po continued." In separate rooms." he quickly added, seeing Shifu's gaze.

"Continue." Shifu prompted.

"We set out into the forest towards Xinan the next day." Tigress took up the tale. "During the second evening, we were assaulted by unknown attackers who first knocked Po out and then me."

"How were you knocked out?"

"Tranquilizer darts." Po huffed in embarrassment. "We think it was done by a hungry group of refugees, because they only took our gear but not us. And they left the blanket I fell on, apparently unable to lift me off of it."

"They also took our compass." Tigress continued. "Due to the constant bad weather and snowfall, we began walking in circles. After spending the night on top of a broad tree, we were assaulted by a raiding group of tigers."

"So it's true that the tigers were already reaching past Xinan?" Shifu asked.

"Yes." Tigress nodded. "We fought them but since we were weak from hunger, we couldn't defeat them. He used the Golden Lotus clap, we fled and then Po tripped, fell into a gorge and... and..." she added, fighting back tears.

"What happened?" Shifu asked Po, voice subdued.

"I died." Po replied quietly.

"He died saving my life." Tigress calmed herself. "When he fell, he managed to grab onto a tree and then the ground gave way under me and I fell too. He caught me and threw me up to another branch, causing his to break off and him to fall. Then I fell too and despite his injuries, he moved himself to where I would land on him instead the ground. Then he died."

"You gave your life for my daughter?" Shifu turned to Po, seeing the panda in a completely different way now.

"Of course." Po shrugged.

"Forgive me for my doubt but you are sitting here, very much alive." Shifu stated.

"Tigress healed me." Po explained.

"How?"

"It's kind of hard to explain." Tigress shrugged. "All I could see was him lying there, without a heartbeat and I felt such loss, I could barely stand it. When I roared into the sky, something happened inside me and I suddenly could see into Po, saw where he was injured and I was able to put his bones back together and got his heart beating again."

"You healed him with the power of Chi." Shifu realized.

"Apparently." Tigress nodded. "But it wasn't enough. I collapsed before I could finish it and when I woke up again, he was still unconscious so I picked him up and carried him away. But I was hungry and cold and collapsed again before I could reach a cave."

"And how did you survive?"

"We were found by another female tiger." Po replied to him. "She carried us into her cave and bound our wounds."

"I woke up first." Tigress said. "That tiger turned out to be my mother."

"Really?" Shifu asked surprised. "She just said that?"

"No, I saw it immediately. She looked exactly like me, only older. She then confirmed it."

"Did she tell you why she left you at the orphanage?"

"Yes." Tigress nodded. "She did it to protect me."

"How so?"

"The majority of the tigers tribes have turned to an old dogma of male domination and female subservience during the last two hundred years." Po told him. "That went so far that they habitually killed female cubs after they were born. Royal families never kept females alive, only the males."

"But that prevents any alliance by marriage." Shifu argued.

"Exactly what I said." Po nodded. "It also meant that there were too few females to replenish the massive losses a big war would have caused. The tribes were too busy raiding each other and kidnapping their females."

"They also kept the females subdued with a potion made in the south, in the northern Bengal region." Tigress added. "But the region was as hard hit with this winter as the area around Xinan, which meant that the plant they made the potion from has most likely died out or it has gotten so rare that the Bengal tribes can't spare potion for the Chinese and Indian tribes. Tigerius had began to keep the females chained up to subdue them."

"Who is Tigerius?" Shifu asked.

"He was the leader of the largest tribe in the area." Po answered. "He... uh... was also Tigress' biological father."

"You found your father?"

"Yes." Tigress nodded.

"What happened?" Shifu wanted to know, seeing her sad face.

"Tigerius had begun to assimilate tribes into his own, since he was one of the very few tigers who had any potion left. Tigress and I decided that, for the good of China, he had to be stopped." Po told him. "But we didn't want to kill him. What we planned was to free the females and get them away. We figured that the tribes he assimilated would rebel against him when they learned that the females were gone, fracturing his army. And it worked. I challenged him to a duel and Tigress used the distraction to get the females out of the camp."

"But you didn't kill him in your duel?" Shifu inquired and Po shook his head. "Then how did he die?"

"My fault." Tigress sighed. "Po told me to leave with the females. But I decided to stay back to help him. As I was watching them fight, a tiger noticed the females gone and alerted the camp. I was spotted and forced to fight with Po. Tigerius attacked both of us. He wanted Po dead and me captured to use me as a breeder. He even managed to surprise us and made me ingest some of the potion."

"How did you manage to keep your free will? I assume you did."

"Po again saved me. He used the trigger word to make me heave and vomit it out." Tigress smiled at her panda who smiled back.

"You have a trigger word that makes you heave?" Shifu wondered with a slight smile. "I would like to hear it."

"That stays between me and Po." Tigress stated resolutely, eschewing to tell her father that Monkey knew it too, if the simian had not forgotten already.

"Alright, continue." Shifu told them.

"Po fought Tigerius to a stand still, giving me the opportunity to deliver the killing blow. It pained me to do it but I knew in my heart that it had to be done. He was too far gone into the dogma to be pulled back." Tigress sighed. "Afterwards, me and Po had to fight our way through a chaotic melee because, just as he predicted, the death of their leader fractured the various tigers along their old tribal lines."

"And how did you return in a flash of light surrounded by peach petals?"

"That was Po's exit strategy and the reason I had to leave with the females. He wanted to use the Wuxi Finger hold on himself to escape to the spirit realm and use the spirit realm transportation technique."

"So, instead, he pulled you into the spirit realm as well?"

"Yes, he did the same thing he did to Kai. He held me as he used the hold on himself and we were transported to the spirit realm." Tigress recounted.

"Did you meet Grandmaster Oogway?" Shifu asked.

"Yes." Tigress nodded. "We... uh... also met Tai Lung."

"WHAT?"

"He wanted back to the real world. And he also wanted the Dragon Warrior title." Po chuckled. "I didn't fight him, I simply defended against his attacks."

"I fought him." Tigress continued. "But in doing that, I was doing exactly Oogway said was the reason I wouldn't have been named Dragon Warrior."

"You were too aggressive." Shifu nodded, having found that out a while ago.

"Yes. Then I simply rejected his attacks. It caused my Chi to flare up and repel him. It was the most astonishing thing."

"Tigress has found inner peace and the ability to express her Chi." Po smiled at his tiger. "So, even after all our hardships, our journey was a success."

"That is good to hear." Shifu said proudly. "Yet achieving inner peace is only the beginning. You need to strive every day to retain your inner peace."

"Yes, master." Tigress bowed low.

"Po, will you excuse us for a minute?" Shifu turned to the panda. "Wait outside but if you eavesdrop, you will run up the thousand steps a hundred times tomorrow."

"Understood master." Po bowed and left them alone.

"Daughter, I am very proud of you." Shifu said, looking at her. "You have achieved what took me thirty years of intense training."

"I didn't do it alone."

"Yes, our panda. He's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"What about him?" she asked.

"Am I right in my assumption that your relationship with Po has turned to more than just friendship and camaraderie?"

"I..." Tigress started then stopped. "I don't know actually. I never had a full conversation about it with him."

"Do you want your relationship with him to be more than friendship?"

"I... uh... yes. Yes, I would." Tigress nodded, thinking back to what she experienced during their Chi meld. "When I was connected to him through our Chi, I realized that I was shutting myself away from life by being voluntarily lonely. And I know that Po is the only one who really understands me."

"Very well." Shifu nodded, bowing to the inevitable. "Does Po know that?"

"I think so. I don't know if he too wants to be more than friends but he offers me companionship and comfort whenever I need it." Tigress smiled. "Not to mention food."

"If that is enough for you..."

"Why, father?" Tigress interrupted him. "Are you objecting to me and Po being in a relationship?"

"As your father, I will object to anyone being in a relationship with you." Shifu chuckled. "But I also know that I should never stand in the way of your happiness."

"Thank you baba." Tigress smiled and hugged her foster father, much to his surprise.

"You're welcome. Would you please send Po in here? You should go meditate afterwards."

"Yes, master." Tigress bowed again and stood up, leaving her master and father. On her way out, she saw Po sitting in the lotus position in front of the pool of sacred tears and mentioned for him to go into her fathers room.

"Master?" Po greeted Shifu again and sat down in front of the red panda.

"So, Po, what are your intentions with my daughter?" Shifu asked without preamble.

"I want her to be happy." Po replied sincerely, trying to ignore his more rapid beating hard under the gaze of his master.

"Very well. You may go." Shifu dismissed him, much to the panda's surprise.

"Just like that?"

"Yes. You might want to head down to the village, your fathers will want to know that you returned."

"My biological father is still here?"

"He is. He refused to leave with the other pandas unless you returned."

"The other pandas are gone then?"

"They are. They finished their training and I must say, they are quite the fast learners. They learned in four months what others learn in two years." Shifu said proudly.

"Thank you master." Po bowed. "See you later."

Po ran out of the palace and down the stairs, greeting the people he met on his way. Closing in on his father's restaurant, he slowed down, listening to the sounds coming from it. The booming laughter of his biological father and the more subdued of his foster dad. People were looking at him in awe, despite his attempts to not be too arrogant about his title.

"Hey dads, I'm back." he announced when entering the restaurant.

"Po!" two voices shouted in unison before the bodies attached to the mouths that voiced them crashed into him.

"You're finally back." Mr. Ping said.

"We were so worried." Li added and broke the hug. "So, where you successful? Did Master Tigress find inner peace?"

"Yes, she did." Po nodded. "Although it was a hard journey."

"Come on, tell us all about it." Mr. Ping said and cleaned a table. "We will eat something and I will prepare something for Master Tigress as well."

Po nodded and sat down, watching his fathers close the restaurant early, promising the patrons a free dessert, with purchase of course, then he bustled around in the kitchen before sitting back down at the table, so Po could tell them the tale.

* * *

"Sister?" the voice of Viper brought her out of her reverie.

"Yes?" Tigress turned her head.

"Is everything alright? You don't look like you're meditating."

"It's that obvious, huh?" Tigress chuckled.

"Well, yeah, the way you lounge on the roof instead of sitting in the proper meditative position." Viper smiled back.

"I'm thinking."

"What about? Has it something to do with your debriefing?"

"Kind of." Tigress sighed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course." Viper nodded and coiled herself into a more comfortable position next to her friend.

"What do you think of inter-species couples? I mean, do you see something weird?"

"I don't see what should be weird. Why should anyone be prevented from finding his true love just because he or she is another species." Viper stated.

"What about kids?"

"If it can't work naturally, people can always adopt. Sure, most want their own children to continue the line but it shouldn't the sole reason to choose a mate. I for one wouldn't be too sad if I never had my own children if it meant not being with the one I love."

"You're not talking about a certain bird we all know." Tigress squinted her eyes, enjoying Viper's blush.

"You're not talking about a certain panda, are you?" Viper returned and now it was Tigress' turn to blush. "Anyway, in the end, it's up to you what you want to have in life. If your goal is children, you would be best served if you choose another tiger or at least another feline, since we really don't know if a tiger and, hypothetically speaking, a panda are compatible and if so, what the end result would look like."

"I imagine either a very athletic panda with a taste for tofu or a fat tiger who likes bamboo." Tigress laughed heartily, something Viper had rarely seen before.

"Well, I'll return inside." Viper proclaimed. "This winter weather is not well suited for a cold blooded animal. You should meditate over what you want, it might help."

"I think I'll head up to the dragon grotto. Thank you Viper." Tigress bowed to her friend and stood up.

"You're welcome."

Tigress jumped off the roof and walked to the path leading to the grotto, moving up the inclining way until she had reached the hole in the wall with the waterfall on one side and the sheer drop on the other. She took a deep breath of cold air, basking in the low hanging, cold evening sun and got into the lotus position, trying to clear her mind.

The world seemed to fade away as she looked into herself, seeing the remnant of her inner turmoil over her past. She saw the smiling face of her mother, her proud smile heaping plaudits on Tigress of what she had achieved in her life. She saw the face of her biological father, his insight that females weren't just usable as breeders, to be chained up. She saw the pride in her adoptive father, a paternal joy of seeing his child succeed. And above all, she saw the face of a big panda, who looked at her with jade green eyes that said more than any words could express.

"Tigress?" Po's voice brought her back to the real world.

"Po? I thought you were in the village?" she returned.

"Oh, I'm already back." he shrugged. "I was down there for several hours. My dads gave me some food for you." he continued and opened the box he was carrying.

"Its okay, I'm not hu... fried tofu with ginseng?" her eyes got wide.

"And tiger lily." he grinned, producing two chopsticks and handing her the box which she took eagerly.

"How did you know where to find me?" she asked as she ate the delicious food.

"Viper told me you had come up here." he replied. "Everything okay?"

"Yes." she nodded. "Just trying to figure out what I truly want."

"Any luck?"

"Not so far." she sighed.

"Want to try another meld?"

"Couldn't hurt." she shrugged and put the empty box away.

Po sat down in the lotus position directly opposite of Tigress, who mirrored his stance. He put out his arms, as did she and their paws connected, fingers interlinked as both closed their eyes and their breathing synchronized. A soft glow began to emanate from both their paws, the color blending together as both their consciousnesses fell into each other.

The eyes of a certain red panda snapped open, experiencing a feeling of paternal dread combined with gleeful pride. He let his Chi sight roam and saw a glow coming from the location of the dragon grotto. Knowing that his daughter was up there and that the panda had joined her, having seen him walk by before, his heart got heavy when thinking about what salacious things might be happening right now.

Shifu hurried out of the palace and, quiet as the wind, hurried up the path to the grotto. He slowed down as he closed in on it, trying to discern any other sounds besides the rush of the water to see if he would be intruding in something or mercifully, for his state of mind at least, break something up he expected at some point but, as a father, simply couldn't fathom.

As he rounded the last corner, he found his daughter sitting across the Dragon Warrior, both masters having their arms outstretched and their paws connected. The glow came from their hands and to his Chi sight, it was a beautiful thing to behold as they connected on a level he could never have with her.

He watched as the spray from the waterfall formed bubbles, landing on their fur and rolling down along it instead of soaking into their fur. He saw instantly that both Tigress and Po were in a state of inner peace and he couldn't bring himself to disrupt them. Knowing that nothing was happening that would be worrisome to him as a father, he turned around and walked back to the palace, leaving the two to their meditation.

"Wow." Tigress breathed after their connection ended, an hour after Shifu had left.

"Yeah." Po chuckled. "Did you find out what you want?"

"Yes." she nodded. "You?"

"Yeah." he nodded as well and let go of her paws.

Tigress got out of the lotus position and stood up, walking two small steps until she was directly in front of Po. She climbed into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck while his own arms went around her back, holding her tight. She gave him a small smile, which he returned before pressing her lips onto his, finally experiencing the feeling of belonging she had been searching for all her life.

* * *

 **Done here. I think there may be one or two more chapters in this.**

 **Review please :) (or I leave it open ended *laughing maniacally*)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Huh, the tenth chapter. Who would have thought that my mediocre writing talent could garner such a following that it made me write to this point.**

 **Jakaynne: Come on, there were no tears and also no yelling. But your fingers might have hurt from typing so hard :D**

 **Little shorter this one but I didn't want to stretch it out needlessly.**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

A month had passed since Tigress and Po kissed inside the dragon grotto. Since then, they kept their relationship to themselves, stealing moments whenever they could, mostly in the kitchen when she helped him up clean after the other masters had gone or before going to bed. The other masters suspected something but even Mantis didn't say much more than a few lame jokes while Viper did know more than the others, her instincts screaming at her that something significant had happened between her sister and the Dragon Warrior.

The only one who they told was Po's biological father. Two weeks after Po and Tigress' return, Li announced his plan to return to the panda village to be with his people, leading to a teary goodbye. At the edge of the village, with all the other masters gone, Po and Tigress held paws, showing his father that his son was in a relationship.

Shifu himself was never sure about these two. After that first morning, where he tried to catch them exiting Po's room together, they never once did on the days afterwards. They never showed, during training when he was watching or in the mornings or evenings, that they were a couple, wanting to let him figure it out by himself.

Now, Po and Tigress were sparring again, with the panda defending against the tiger's ferocious attacks. To both their surprise and the surprise of the rest of the Furious Five, they were already at it for an hour, both showing few signs of tiring out. For a few moments throughout the fight, it looked like one or the other might win but no matter how hard one tried, the other always managed to just narrowly miss being defeated.

"Alright you two, stop now." Shifu ordered, causing both tiger and panda to stop and fall down in exhaustion. "Lets call it a tie."

"Wow... that was... intense." Po panted, leaning forward to rest on his arms.

"Agreed." Tigress panted as well. "You have... built up... quiet the endurance."

"Yes, he has." Shifu agreed. "You see panda, you might have seen it as a punishment but my methods to have results."

"You were right master." Po nodded.

For the last month, Shifu had made Po run up the thousand steps between ten and thirty times every morning, slowly increasing the number of repetitions. While he had complained as usual, Po had realized that when he had to run up and down twenty times, he wasn't as exhausted after ten climbs as he had been the week before. At the end, he was even able to spar after running up the steps for thirty times.

"Very good." Shifu nodded. "Now, I have an announcement."

"What is it?" Crane asked as the masters gathered around Shifu.

"As you know, the winter festival will be held soon..."

"Oh man, do we have to sit here in a boring circle while the regular people have fun?" Po interrupted.

"No," Shifu continued, glaring at the panda for the interruption. "This year, Master Pach is hosting it at the Ivory Palace."

"But Master, that is a two week trip and the festival is in four days." Crane interjected.

"Correct." Shifu nodded. "That's why I'm taking the condor transport. Flying will take three days."

"Are we all going?" Tigress wanted to know.

"No." Shifu shook his head at his daughter. "Due to the nature of the transport, you, Po and Monkey can't come with us and are therefore ordered to protect the valley and the palace. If Viper and Mantis want to accompany me, they can and Crane can too if he flies by himself. But again, your presence there is voluntary."

"I think I will sit that out." Mantis lifted his arms. "Knowing Po, he will cook with his dad and I take their food over any other any day."

"Being high up in the cold air during winter wouldn't be wise for me." Viper shook her head.

"I'll stay here as well." Crane put in. "Ever since we celebrated with the townsfolk at Mr. Ping's, the masters dinners have become such a dull affair."

"I never understand how you can see that as a dull affair." Shifu sighed. "The tradition, the long speeches, the music."

"Exactly." Crane nodded. "And now we have good food, dances and fun."

"Young people today." Shifu muttered. "As I was saying, I will depart tomorrow at noon, so I will supervise your morning training. That means Po will make another thirty runs up the thousand steps."

"Gah!" Po groaned.

"Come on Po, you did it every day for a month, you can do it again." Tigress smiled at him.

"I know I can but it's still boring, running down and up again and down and up again. I always have to watch my feet so I don't trip and fall down."

"Which is why I make you do it." Shifu interjected. "It's not just to train your endurance but also your concentration."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"Why would I?" Shifu grinned devilishly.

"To make my life a bit easier?" Po moped.

"Exactly, so why would I." Shifu chuckled.

"I'll go make dinner." Po huffed and walked off to the snickering of the others.

After dinner, the masters relaxed with what they did to relax. Crane drew more of his calligraphy characters, Mantis was busy with his scrolls that sometimes even were his bed, Viper warming her body close to an oven and Monkey baking cookies. Po and Tigress went up the dragon grotto, like they had done every day since their first kiss and meditated again by melding their Chi together, thereby creating a connection that went so much deeper than any hug.

And, as he had done every day since that first day, Shifu sneaked after them, watching them create the connection he would probably never have with his adopted daughter. Even though he barely told her or even made her understand but he loved her dearly and was feeling a great paternal pride at how much she had accomplished since Po fell from the sky.

She had opened up emotionally, started to have fun, and thanks to Po, found out about her heritage, her parents, found inner peace and could express her Chi. He stroked his whiskers as he mused about the two. He never saw anything but he could swear that they gravitated to each other whenever they were in the same room and he did notice those little nuanced touches that looked like accidental contact. He would have loved to ask them, but he felt too much shyness in that regard to flat out ask them, also fearing that she would see it as interference in something very private.

Shrugging, Shifu turned around and walked back to the palace. Had he stayed two minutes longer, he would have seen Po and Tigress embrace into a passionate kiss, paws roaming across each others backs and tongues connecting until the need for oxygen forced them apart again.

* * *

"Po! Tigress!" Shifu's voice made them jump apart as they were kissing in the kitchen.

"Yes, Master Shifu?" Tigress bowed after her adopted father entered the kitchen, seeing her and Po standing far apart. "Are you leaving already?"

"No, not for another fifteen minutes but I just received a message for you two." Shifu replied. "Come with me."

Po and Tigress followed their Grandmaster into the hall of heroes and from there to Shifu's room where several small, packed bags were waiting to be picked up. Shifu sat down and mentioned for them both to do the same. As they were waiting, Shifu produced a scroll and handed it to Tigress.

"After your return last month, I sent out a hawk messenger to find out if your mother was okay." Shifu started and handed Tigress the scroll. "He came back today and brought a letter from her."

"What is it?" Po asked Tigress as the tiger read the scroll, a small tear forming in her eyes.

"She's okay." Tigress smiled. "While we fought and then escaped into the spirit realm, my mother led the females away from the tiger camp and brought them into her cave for a few days until they all were strong enough for a longer trip."

"So, where did they end up?"

"She says that she led them to Xinan. Most of the females are going to the northern tribes where the old dogma hasn't taken hold and females are still treated equally. Some others are going to middle China to live in peace. And several of them have joined her in her crusade to free more females."

"But won't the dogmatic tribes one day assault the northern tribes to get their paws on the females?" Po asked.

"Panda, that's not as easy as it might sound." Shifu replied instead. "The key is geography. The northern tribes are protected by high mountains and narrow passes. Fifty warriors can defend against a thousand without getting into any risk. And that discounts the danger of the mountains themselves."

"Oh, a good thing then." Po gave his thumbs up. "I wish them all the best. Any more in the letter?"

"Just that the tribal alliance Tigerius had created has completely broken up." Tigress told him. "What was left of them after they slaughtered each other has returned to their old rivalries. But she guesses these tribes won't survive since they have absolutely no females left and not enough strength, even combined, to raid another tribe for its females."

"Which means, they either get wiped out or absorbed into other tribes." Po sighed. "Such waste because of old-dated ideas."

"Alright, I have to leave now." Shifu stated and got up. "I expect the palace to remain standing while I am gone and your training to continue until the winter festival. Po, I know that you will be busy in your fathers shop so I'm giving you the three days over the festival off."

"Thank you, Master." Po bowed and they followed Shifu back out into the courtyard where a large condor had landed.

The other masters were already waiting, helping Shifu store his bags on the condor's back before their Grandmaster climbed up as well. After waving them goodbye, the condor flapped its powerful wings, lifting off the ground and quickly disappearing in the low hanging clouds. The masters walked into the training hall, where Po proceeded to teach the class, having learned from scrolls and in the panda village how to teach each master the way he or she learned the best.

The next day was the same, Po even running up the stairs on his own volition and then leading the masters in the class again. The evenings were the same as all the others, the masters doing their recreational activities while Po and Tigress first meditated in their Chi meld before heavily making out in the grotto.

On the day of the winter festival, Po bid his goodbye to the masters and walked down the thousand steps to the village and his fathers restaurant. Tigress did two runs of the training course, the other masters doing the same even though they had the day off. Afterwards, they ate a lackluster lunch thanks to Po not being there to cook it and tried to pass the time until the feast itself started. After Tigress had gone up the dragon grotto for something she planned for later, she headed down to the restaurant.

"Hey Po." she smiled at her panda who was busy stretching noodles.

"Hey princess." he grinned back, his paws clotted with dough.

"Princess?" Mister Ping's voice came from behind her. "I have to hear the story of that."

"Po." Tigress growled.

"Oh, sorry." Po palmed his face, putting dough and flour on his muzzle.

"Well?" Mister Ping prompted.

"Tigress' father was the leader of his tribe." Po told him. "Hence my nickname for her. Princess."

"Interesting." the old goose grinned.

"Please, keep it to yourself." Tigress implored him.

"Don't worry. I won't humiliate my future daughter-in-law."

"What?" Tigress was shocked, Po's face showing the same reaction.

"Master Tigress, I'm a father. It's hard not to come to this conclusion when Po starts humming your name during his cooking chores."

"Po!" Tigress growled again.

"Sorry, it's a reflex reaction." Po shrugged. "I sometimes talk to myself when I prepare food."

"Hmpf." Tigress harrumphed. "Can I help with something?"

"Oh yes, you can mix and flatten the dough and form the dumplings." Mister Ping said, immediately shoving a large pot into her paws.

"How many do you need?" Tigress asked, wincing at the amount of dough and dreading the answer.

"Oh, maybe two thousand." the goose replied, already waddling away.

"Two thousand?" Tigress groaned, already regretting her offer to help. "Are you serious?"

"Better get started." Po said from the kitchen. "I have been stretching noodles since I got here."

"Wow, that's a lot." she commented the huge pile of noodles after entering the kitchen.

"Yeah." he nodded, kissing her on the kips.

"Po!" she hissed. "Not where everyone can see us. I want to keep this to ourselves a while longer."

"Princess, there is nobody here but my dad and he knows already." Po winked.

"I do." came a call from outside.

"Fine. But behave yourself when others could see us." she moped and walked closer to kiss him.

"I don't hear dumplings being formed." Mister Ping said from the outside.

"Dad, you actually can't hear dumplings being formed." Po argued as Tigress began to shape the dough into dumplings.

After a few hours, with the outside area of the restaurant slowly but surely turning into a colorful display of lanterns and ribbons due to Po's dad decorating, Tigress managed to get into a fast rhythm of dumpling forming. When she reached the first thousand, Po finished stretching the noodles and proceeded to help her, which processed the remaining dough quickly into another thousand and fourteen dumplings.

As Tigress tried to clean her paws, first by washing them and then by using her rough feline tongue to get the most stubborn remains out of her fur, Po began cooking, placing giant pots on the stove only someone of his size could lift when filled with water. When he began to add spices, Tigress' mouth watered and she held her head over the open pot, smelling the aroma and trying not to drool into the pot.

"There you go." Po grinned and pushed a dumpling into her mouth.

"Wrn m th nxt tm." she mumbled, trying to chew.

"What was that? You want another one?" he chuckled, causing her to growl. "Kidding, I understood you. Next time I'll warn you."

"Thank you." she finally managed to swallow.

"Alright, Master Tigress, it's time for you to step out." Mister Ping announced. "Po and I need to make the soup now, we need room. You can welcome the guests and seat them."

"Fine." she huffed and stepped outside.

While the first guests piled in, Tigress sat down at the table they had used before and watched as Po and his dad danced around the kitchen, putting more ingredients into the pot and stirring it at the same time. As they threw the spices into the air to let it get caught by the bowls they had filled, her fellow masters came into the restaurant, sitting down at their table and waiting for the food to arrive outside.

"The meal is served." Po announced, laden with bowls on plates on his arms and head, his dad looking the same.

"Happy holiday Po." Tigress said as she took a bowl, mirroring the same thing she had said during the first winter festival they had celebrated here.

"Amazing as always, Mister Ping." Mantis proclaimed, slurping on his bowl.

Po and his dad distributed the bowls, getting more until every guest had one. The presence of the Furious Five and Po had the added effect of more people wanting to celebrate in Mister Ping's restaurant, something that made the old goose giddy with the anticipated profit. Tigress looked on as they brought out the dumplings she had, for the most part, made and proudly watched as they ere eaten with gusto, Po wolfing them down by the handful until a glare from her made him stop and eat with chopsticks.

Once the majority of the food was gone, the guests started drinking and celebrating, the children playing games and the adults talking to each other. Po and his dad kept bringing out more soup for those who wanted more, which included Monkey and Mantis. Even Viper had two more servings until she leaned back and slid closer to the kitchen for the warmth.

* * *

Tigress watched the celebration, the townspeople who showed up for tonight being merry, children chasing each other, simply having fun. It was a bit sad that her foster father wasn't here as well but his role as Grandmaster obligated him to be at the Grandmaster's dinner and she also knew that he actually enjoyed the dullness of the entire thing.

She had enjoyed it too until a few years ago when Po had hosted the dinner and subsequently left it to celebrate with his father and the townsfolk. But now, she and the other members of the Furious Five would rather be here, having fun with the people they were sworn to protect instead of sitting in a cold room with two dozen other masters who also sat humorlessly without saying anything.

Mister Ping's cooking was also far better than any year the Grandmaster's dinner had been cooked by whatever cook was chosen at the time. Except when Po did it, of course. While they hadn't any of his food during the dinner he hosted, she had sneaked a bite afterwards when all the other masters had left.

"Alright, who wants a fifth serving?" Po shouted his question to be heard over the din.

His inquiry was met with multiple waving arms, all wanting to eat more of their delicious food. Instead of bringing bowls to everyone, Po simply moved around with the large pot, refilling those bowls held out to him. When he reached the table where her and the masters sat, Monkey and Mantis held up their bowls, while Viper and Crane politely declined, the snake preferring to slide even closer to the kitchen where the heat of the stove was benefiting her the most in the cold winter weather, Crane joining her.

"Not for me, thank you." Tigress declined as well but he gave her a ladle full of soup anyway, adding a pinch of ginseng and putting a tiger lily behind her ear, another one into the soup.

"You sure?" he grinned, their voices low enough to not be overheard by the other two slurping masters.

"Fine." she huffed and ate, moaning at the taste while Po brought the almost empty pot back into the kitchen.

Tigress emptied her bowl and took Monkey's and Mantis' as well, taking them to the kitchen and handing them to Po so he could wash them. She noticed the stacks of already cleaned bowls, a testament to the ease with which Po did kitchen work, even though his father had helped with most of it. Mr. Ping himself sat outside, playing a spirited game of Mahjong with a few elderly pigs and sheep while the children still ran around and other grownups passed the time with dancing or desserts.

"Thanks for the help." Po smiled at her, tugging at her heartstrings.

"Any time." she returned and hugged him from behind. "Do you have to stay here?"

"Not necessarily." Po replied. "The people all ate, the desserts are out for everyone to grab and the kitchen is cleaned. So my duties are basically done. Why do you ask?"

"Come with me." she took his paw and pulled him out of the kitchen and the restaurant.

On their way, only a few pairs of eyes followed them, the reality of them being together being an open secret almost everybody knew. Nobody called them back or asked where they were going, the majority of villagers having rooted for them for a while already, thanks in no small part to Mister Ping rooting for them for so long and telling everyone about his preference.

As they walked through he snow-filled village towards the Jade Palace, Tigress smiled to herself. The only one who didn't know for sure was Shifu, either because he truly didn't realized it yet or as some form of willful denial that his daughter was her own woman and had chosen the panda as her companion. But tonight, Shifu wasn't here.

They walked up the thousand steps, Po this time not even tiring a bit thanks to the food inside him and his thoughts being on the tiger holding his paw instead of his old nemesis. Instead of going into the palace itself, Tigress led him around it and up the path towards the dragon grotto. Frowning in confusion, Po refrained from ruining the quiet by asking why they were going up there.

As they rounded the last corner, Po was surprised to find the grotto draped with candles, the ones close to the waterfall protected by cloth screens that prevented the water spray from extinguishing them. A small table stood in the far corner, several bowls with fruit on them and a blanket lay on the ground, which she led him to where both sat down after Tigress had taken the fruit bowl.

"Wow, did you do all this?" he asked excited, looking around.

"Yeah." she nodded. "I thought it might be appropriate for the occasion."

"What occasion?" he wondered. "Did I forget something?"

"Well, it's a month today since we kissed here."

"Oh no, I forgot our one month anniversary?" he groaned.

"It's okay, it's not like you didn't have anything to do." she smiled, calming him.

They fed each other pieces of fruit, enjoying each others presence and the atmosphere created by the candles in the grotto, a place that is quiet at any rate but was made even more tranquil now. Their fellow masters were unlikely to disturb them, two of them busy entertaining the kids with jokes and games, the other two spending time together close to a stove to accommodate the cold-blooded of the two.

"I never noticed how beautiful the view is from up here at night and in the winter." Tigress spoke up, moving towards the edge of the cliff and looking down. "Look, you see all the lights in the houses where people are meeting."

"There is my dad's restaurant." Po pointed to a brightly glowing area.

"Beautiful." she smiled.

"Yes, very." he nodded but he wasn't looking at the scenery.

Tigress noticed his stare and blushed, smiling shyly under his gaze. She held his paw for another minute before heading back to the blanket, grabbing the empty bowl and putting it back onto the table. Noticing that Po was still looking down into the valley, she felt the air temperature with her nose, cold but not uncomfortably so with the candles burning around them.

"Po?" she got his attention.

"Yes?" he turned around, looking at her.

"There's something else I really want to do tonight."

"And what is that?" he asked and in reply, Tigress opened her robe and let it fall, standing in front of him in all her naked glory, causing him to almost drool. "Oh my. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure." she smiled lovingly at him and pulled him to the blanket, where she laid down on her stomach and awaited her mate to get onto her back and make a woman out of her.

She did not have to wait long.

Down in the valley, a snake lifted her head and felt the vibrations of a tiger's exalted roar echoing from the mountains through her jaw. She could only smile at the knowledge what that was entailing, and put her head back down around the body of her crane.

* * *

 **One of the guest reviewers mentioned that Tigress' journey could continue on. While I originally hadn't planned on more stories, this one being more of an experiment if I could write KFP at all, I usually don't write sequels for fear of not being able to meet the expectations.**

 **But maybe I extend this one to more chapters. I would have to edit the story description though (oh the humanity O.o) But, like every writer out there, more chapters are always dependent on the readers feedback. *wink wink***

 **Review please :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Final chapter. Hope you'll enjoy it.**

 **Jakaynne: No, you don't need to tell me but it's always nice to hear/read :D**

 **Enjoy :)**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

* * *

After accidentally falling asleep, nestled against the oven in Mister Ping's restaurant, Viper was slithering back to the palace, Crane having flown up earlier. The cold weather had a detrimental effect on her speed and while she didn't think that she would freeze, she was kind of sluggish. But on the other hand, she felt a warmth inside her after having woken up surrounded by Crane's feathers, and as thanks, had pressed a quick kiss against his beak.

Finishing the last few steps, she saw Po and Tigress slowly walk towards the palace, coming from the path leading up to the dragon grotto. Po had a huge grin on his face and a spring in his step, speaking of a form of giddy happiness. Tigress looked similar but her face was more strained and the way she walked made it look as if she had stayed in some convoluted meditative position for hours.

Watching them enter the palace, she noticed Po's paw on her butt, covered by her robe, gently rubbing it as her tail moved left and right in happiness and then wrapped itself around his wrist, keeping his hand in place while they walked through the empty halls. Viper quietly followed them, watching the silent interaction between the two and grinned widely, now knowing for sure what they did the night before, having heard the echo of her roar coming from the mountains.

When they reached the hallway leading to the master's rooms, Viper stayed at the corner, watching the two if they moved into one room. Standing before their rooms, Tigress finally let her tail fall from his wrist, allowing him to take his hand away. Before he could walk into his room however, Tigress stopped him again and Viper giggled silently as she watched him wither under her glare until he seemed to understand what she wanted and opened his arms so she could walk into them and kiss him passionately.

Viper blushed and slithered back a bit to avert her gaze when she noticed their cheeks bulging out, which told her that the kiss was pretty heated. While she was happy for the two, she hoped that it wouldn't go too far in situations that were unsuited for such displays of affection, especially in front of Master Shifu. When she heard the sound of doors sliding shut, she moved forward and, instead of going into her own room, went into Tigress'.

"Sister?" she said quietly, not wanting to disturb the other masters who were, hopefully, still sleeping.

"Hello, Viper." Tigress greeted her back, equally as quiet. "Is something wrong?"

"No." Viper grinned widely.

"Do you need something?"

"No."

"Then why are you in my room?" Tigress asked.

"I'm nosy."

"About?"

"How was it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Sister, I know what you and Po did up there last night." Viper giggled. "I'm so happy for you."

"Uh... I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Tigress, do you know how my hearing works?" Viper asked her.

"Yeah, you hear vibrations through your jaw." Tigress replied.

"Exactly." Viper nodded. "That means I can hear things others might miss. And I heard a very exalted roar coming from the dragon grotto, even from my place in Mister Ping's kitchen. Comparing that with his goofy grin and yours too, it's not that hard to come to the correct conclusion."

"And what exactly is your conclusion?"

"You and Po mated." Viper stated, winking at her. "Tell me I'm wrong?"

"Fine, you are right." Tigress sighed happily. "Yes, Po and I mated."

"Come on, tell me, how was it?"

"Oh my lord, it was amazing, if not a tad painful at the very beginning which was not surprising though." Tigress smiled despite herself.

"Is that the reason for your walk?" Viper giggled again.

"Well, let me just say, he is a bear. And, thanks to Master Shifu making him run up and down the stairs dozens of times every day, he has surprising stamina."

"Really?" Viper asked surprised.

"Yeah." Tigress nodded. "When we finished, it was dawn."

"Wow." Viper stammered. "Then you better get some sleep."

"I intend to." Tigress groaned and sat down, quickly jumping back up and lying down on her stomach. "Luckily Shifu told us to take the day off."

"Speaking of Shifu, how will you tell him about you and Po?"

"Frankly, I have no idea." Tigress closed her eyes. "But I won't be able to think about that anyway before I got some sleep."

"Well, your panda surely is sleeping already." Viper chuckled, hearing the panda's snore coming from the other room.

"I will follow his example." Tigress chuckled.

"Why aren't you sleeping in his room?"

"Because I would have to sleep on his chest. These cots aren't wide enough for two., especially when one is a panda." Tigress replied.

"Well, sleep tight." Viper smiled and turned to the door. "Want me to wake you at some point?"

"Only if I sleep too long. You can let me sleep past lunch if I don't wake up by myselr but please not longer, otherwise my sleep rhythm gets screwed up." Tigress yawned. "And we know what happens if I don't get enough sleep at night."

"I remember, you punch Po when he tries to wake you." Viper chuckled, remembering the day Po's father had converted the palace into a restaurant and made the masters work for him.

With another smile, Viper slithered out of the room and closed the door, internally doing a happy dance for her brother and sister in arms.

* * *

With Po sleeping all day, only waking up to cook dinner for the others and himself and quickly heading back to bed, of course not before kissing Tigress good night, the masters relaxed during their day off, Tigress sleeping until just after noon. They all decided to let Po sleep, knowing how much he tended to whine when he was tired.

Luckily, the next day, all were back on point, Po teaching the masters with the techniques he learned from the scrolls, taking part in the later part of the class. To everybody's surprise, he even ran down and up the stairs for fifteen times again, without as much as breaking a sweat. During the late afternoon hours, Po went to his father, helping him in the restaurant with the dinner crowd, being later joined by the Furious Five who decided to eat there instead of waiting for Po at the palace.

On the evening of the third day after the winter festival, Po had finished the class and made dinner for everyone, all the masters eating his soup and Tigress again helping out with the cleaning up. The masters, minus Shifu, all knew about their relationship and once the jokes had all been made, especially by Monkey and Mantis, they all kept quiet and were silently supportive, even though all were both looking forward to and dreading the reaction of Tigress' foster father.

After dinner, the masters turned to their recreational activities, with Viper warming herself in her room, Crane doing calligraphy again, while Monkey baked more cookies. Tigress had grabbed Po's hand and more or less pulled him to the hot springs where the pools of naturally hot water invited a relaxing bath that soothed muscles and bones. Mantis, the only one not in his room or bathing, was patrolling on the wall when he noticed a large bird closing in, barely visible in the quickly receding light of dusk.

"Master Shifu, you're back early." Mantis commented when he saw the red panda hopping off the condor, pulling his bags down with him.

"Yes, I took an earlier flight." Shifu nodded and waved two palace servants to him who took his luggage.

"How was the master's dinner?" Mantis wanted to know.

"It was a great affair." Shifu smiled. "Everything I wanted it to be. How was your celebration?"

"A blast." Mantis hopped forward, "Po and his dad cooked a fabulous meal, as expected."

"Where is Po? I need to talk to him." Shifu asked.

"He's at the hot springs." Mantis replied and accompanied Shifu into the palace where their paths divulged.

Once Shifu settled back into his quarters, he unpacked his luggage and grabbed his staff again. Since he needed the physical movement after sitting on a large bird's back for so long, he decided to go to Po or meet him if the panda was already on his way back. Given the time, the other masters would already be in their rooms, doing their usual recreational activities, which usually included something quiet.

Shifu breathed in the clear and crisp evening air as he walked slowly towards the hot springs. While he had tremendously enjoyed the winter festival among the other masters, it was great to be back home. He came near to the hot springs, seeing the small shacks the palace staff had built over some of the pools so they could act as private bath houses along with several open pools for when the male or female masters relaxed together, not in the same pools or at the same time of course.

As he closed in on the area and entered it properly, he looked around to find the panda. He wasn't in any of the open pools, which was strange given that he was, as far as Shifu knew, alone up here. Shifu walked to the left side of the pools where the five shacks were built over a pool each and opened the first, finding nobody inside. The second and third were empty as well and when he came close to the fourth, he heard a deep grunting coming from the inside, making him wonder what Po was doing inside that pool.

After giving two gentle knocks on the door and hearing a breathed yes coming from the inside, Shifu opened the door. The image meeting him almost made him drop is staff, his body going rigid and his throat unable to produce a sound. He saw Po sitting inside the pool alright. But he also saw his daughter's back, the tiger on the panda's lap and gently moving up and down.

Her arms were wrapped around the panda's neck while Po held her at her hips. Tigress was pressing his head against her chest and her movement was the cause for his groaning. Even with his brain screaming at him that he was seeing something that he really shouldn't stay for and watch, he couldn't move. He couldn't fathom his daughter doing that, even though she was a grown woman.

"Oh, Po!" Shifu heard Tigress moan while he tried desperately not to watch her twitch but at least it broke the paralysis he was experiencing and he found his voice again.

"PANDA!" Shifu shouted and growled at the same time, causing Tigress to jump off him and press herself against the other side of the pool, her body submerged while Po put his arms between his legs.

"Master Shifu. Uh... you're back already." Po hesitated, not knowing what to expect now.

"HOW... DARE... YOU?" Shifu ground out and lifted his staff to smack him. "I leave and you violate my daughter? I will..." he continued but his staff met resistance before it connected with the panda's head.

"That's quite enough, baba." Tigress said gently, pushing the staff aside.

"Tigress, what is the meaning of this?" Shifu growled.

"I would think that you know what we were doing." Tigress returned, doing all she could to stay both calm and resolute towards her master and father.

"You dare do that without consulting me?"

"Why would I need to ask you if I can mate with someone. I am a grown woman." Tigress growled back.

"I am your father!" Shifu argued and looked past his daughter. "Panda, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I say that I would feel a lot better if we could have this conversation with me having my clothes on." Po whimpered.

"Fine." Shifu squinted, trying to keep calm. "I expect you in the hall of heroes." he added and left, walking back to the palace and not feeling the calm anymore, even forgetting the reason he wanted to talk to Po in the first place.

"Oh man, that was probably the worst way of telling him about us." Po groaned, palming his face.

"Yeah." Tigress sighed, leaning back into Po, the comfortably hot water bubbling around them.

"We should probably get out and go back to the palace." Po sighed as well, pushing her slightly off him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tigress squinted, growling playfully as she turned around.

"Um... returning to Shifu so he can yell at me?" he wondered.

"Panda, we're not done yet." she winked and climbed back into his lap before resuming what Shifu interrupted.

* * *

"I asked you to come here an hour ago." Shifu growled at them when they finally met him in the hall of heroes.

"We had to finish... bathing." Tigress replied, glaring at her father.

"Sit down." Shifu ordered and the two lovers did as he told them. "Explain."

"What is there to explain?" Tigress asked. "We're mates."

"Since when?" Shifu returned, trying to stay calm.

"Five weeks, give or take." Po replied. "It began when we had our first meld in the dragon grotto."

"You mated five weeks ago?"

"No, our first mating happened after the winter festival." Tigress told her father.

"Why didn't you tell me you were together?"

"Because of the reaction that you just showed." Tigress pointed out.

"Po is the Dragon Warrior." Shifu argued. "He can't be in a romantic relationship."

"Why not?" Po asked.

"Because it endangers your partner."

"Oogway said it was alright." Po retorted. "He said that if danger to others was a factor in choosing the Dragon Warrior, the only viable option would be an orphan, otherwise the parents would also be in danger."

"How can you..." Shifu started but Tigress interrupted him.

"Also, I can take care of herself. Furthermore, how can you order someone to forget feelings. My mother told me that all the Dragon Warriors before Po had turned evil at some point and had to be stopped at great cost. She hypothesized that it was maybe because they were filled with heartache after seeing people they loved marry other men or women because they, as Dragon Warriors, couldn't. That fosters resentment."

"Panda, I am afraid for my daughter. I don't want to see her get hurt." Shifu sighed, looking at Po.

"I have no intention of letting that happen." Po stated. "I love her."

"You do?" Tigress asked shocked.

"Uh... yeah."

"I love you too." Tigress gushed and threw herself into his arms, kissing him passionately.

"AHEM!" Shifu cleared his throat, making Tigress return to her place with some embarrassment in her eyes.

"Sorry." she chuckled.

"Alright, if you are really sure about this, there must be some ground rules." Shifu said.

"Like what?" Po asked.

"For one, when you are on a mission, I demand absolute professionalism. That means no sneaking off into the woods to... do whatnot, no kissing or hand holding while on the way."

"What if we spend the night in some inn someplace?"

"If it's behind closed doors, that's different." Shifu nodded. "But if you have to sleep in the open, I want professionalism."

"We can do that." Po nodded.

"Second, keep other displays of affection to a minimum, especially in town. While I admit that it won't be possible to hide your relationship, I was in love once too, try not to advertise it too much."

"What about here in the palace?" Tigress wanted to know.

"Do the other masters know?" Shifu returned.

"Yes." Po nodded.

"Then here it's okay. But... no heavy making out when I'm in the room. It's hard enough already to get that image I got an hour ago out of my head." Shifu shivered. "The palace staff can be trusted not to blabber about you."

"Anything else?" Tigress asked.

"Yes. The most important rule." Shifu glared at them. "You will spend every single night in your own rooms."

"Aw, come on." Po groaned. "You know we already mated, why can't we stay in one room?"

"The last thing we need is my daughter getting pregnant."

"I think the chance of that is pretty low, given that we're not even the same general species." Tigress pointed out.

"Nevertheless, my point is made and will be followed." Shifu stated.

"What about a deal?" Po asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You told me you wanted to see Oogway. What if I take you with me to the spirit realm so you two can have a little chat?" Po grinned, hope in his eyes.

"If you can do that, I might be persuaded to allow you a night here and there."

"I'll wait in the courtyard." Po giggled and hurried out of the hall, Shifu standing up to follow him.

"Baba, a moment please?" Tigress stopped him.

"Yes, daughter?"

"I would like you to consider that regardless of your insistence on me and Po sleeping in separate rooms every night, I will mate with him when I want to, even if I have to take him to the dragon grotto or the hot springs again. Or even his old room in his father's restaurant."

"Does Mister Ping know about you?" Shifu asked her.

"Yes, but we never told him directly. He found out because Po hummed my name during cooking chores."

"Alright, Po is waiting for me." Shifu moved towards the gate. "We will continue to talk later."

Tigress walked after her father and watched as Po lifted him up and used the Wuxi Finger hold on himself again, making them both disappear in peach petals. Where she would have earlier have been concerned, now she simply hoped that he would be able to pull Shifu back to the real world with him, otherwise, her father would get to spend eternity with Oogway.

"What happened?" Viper asked, the other members of the Five gathering behind Tigress and looking at the circle of petals.

"Po took Shifu to see Oogway." Tigress told them.

"Why?" Mantis wanted to know.

"Because Oogway needs to make Shifu see that me and Po being a couple, and acting like one in private, is not a bad thing."

"Will he be able to come back with him?" Monkey spoke up.

"I hope so." Tigress shrugged.

"How did Shifu take the news about you two?" Viper asked.

"Well, he found out in the worst possible way." Tigress sighed.

"How?" Mantis giggled, causing Tigress and Viper to glare at him. "What?"

"Okay boys, you go to bed now." Viper ordered.

"I don't know why they think we're not mature enough to listen to their talk." Crane muttered as he led the boys back into the barracks.

"So? Tell me." Viper giggled.

"Well, Po and I were... uh... bathing when Shifu walked in on us."

"Oh no." Viper groaned.

"Yeah." Tigress nodded. "I had to fight hard to stay calm and to prevent Shifu from hitting Po."

"Oh, look, they seem to be coming back." Viper pointed to the petals in the courtyard with her tail.

They looked on as the petals rose into the air and began rotating together, tighter and tighter while their glow increased. Tigress noticed it to be the same intensity and speed as the petals had in the panda village before Po had returned. A few seconds after the petals had begun floating, a flash occurred in the center and the floating figures of Po holding Shifu appeared, the two falling down when the petals disappeared.

"That was quick." Tigress commented, walking towards them and hugging Po.

"Really?" Po asked, wrapping his arms around her. "We spent hours in the spirit realm."

"Time flows differently in the spirit realm than it does out in the real world, Po." Shifu commented as he got up and brushed the dirt off his robe, taking his staff again.

"Did you talk to Oogway?" Tigress asked, taking Po's paw into hers and squeezing it.

"Yes." Shifu nodded.

"And?"

"If you want to spend your nights together, you are free to do so." Shifu said, even though he was clearly uncomfortable. "But please, for the sake of my peace of mind, try to be as quiet as possible."

"We can do that." Po grinned.

"Alright, to bed now." Shifu ordered. "Tomorrow, I will take over the training again."

"Yes, Master." Viper, Tigress and Po said in unison, all bowing.

Tigress walked with Po towards the barracks building, Viper following them. The snake stayed quiet and watched in fascination as Tigress went into Po's room, pulling the panda in behind her and both returned to the hallway, carrying Po's cot. She kept watching as the two put their cots next to each other, binding the feet tightly together to prevent them from slipping apart, creating what looked like a double bed.

"Good night, Viper." Tigress glared at her.

"Night, Tigress." Viper grinned. "Night, Po."

"Sleep tight, Scales."

"You know that we will be subject to a lot of ribbing and jokes, right?" Tigress commented after closing the door, sitting down next to Po on their oversized cot.

"Ah well, I don't really have a problem with that." he shrugged. "You know why?"

"Why?"

"Because, at the end of the day, I can do this." he smiled and hugged her tight, pulling her onto his chest as he laid down. "And this." he continued, gently rubbing her butt with his right paw. "And of course, this." he finished, lifting her chin to kiss her deeply.

When she felt his lips press against hers, she opened her mouth to meet his tongue while starting to purr. She had no idea if more mating was a prospect, since they had finished less than an hour ago but Po had the advantage of several hours of rest inside the spirit realm. Either way, she would welcome it.

Enjoying his caresses, she let herself fall into the bliss of being with her mate, the one she had created an unbreakable bond with ever since their consciousnesses melded together. And now that they had her fathers reluctant blessing, nobody would be able to make her give him up again. What had started as a simply journey to find her origin had ended in her not only finding out about it but finding the love of her life.

She was happy.

* * *

 **Well, this story is done. I originally wanted to write a real epilogue chapter, with scenes of their future life together but since quite a few readers practically demanded a follow up story, I decided to write one. Those of you who put me on favorite (or follow, can never separate which does what), you will surely see it published at some point.**

 **The story following this one is called "The Journey Continues". Enjoy.**

 **Review please :)**


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